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Health ministry constitutes FSSR task force; To file report in 45 days
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Friday, 19 December, 2014, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Ashwani Maindola, New Delhi
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fiogf49gjkf0d The health ministry has constituted a task force to revisit the Food Safety and Standards Regulations (FSSR), 2011. It would submit its report in 45 days, which would thereafter be put for public comment. This was stated by health minister J P Nadda in Lok Sabha, while replying to a calling-attention notice on the rising food adulteration in India on December 15, 2014.
He added, “Time has come to revisit the Regulations. When we are doing so, we would ensure that all aspects of the food industry (organised and unorganised) must be looked into, and so must imported food.”
The ministry proposed to comprehensively review the FSSR, 2011, to address the concerns of the courts, including matters relating to food adulteration and the numerous representations received from food business operators (FBO). FnB News reported it in October 2014.
“It was also proposed that the punishment stipulated for milk adulteration would be revisited and made more stringent,” Nadda said.
He added that the food regulatory framework had now moved from being limited to prevention of food adulteration to one concerned with a safe and wholesome food regime.
The responsibility for enforcement of the FSSR, 2011, primarily rests with states and Union Territories (UT).
The Regulations provided for graded penalties for infringement of its provisions. The penalties and punishment for selling food not of the nature or substance or quality demanded; sub-standard food; misbranded food; misleading advertisement; food containing extraneous matter, and unsafe food for possessing adulterants were specified in the Regulations.
The Food Safety and Standards (Contaminants, Toxins and Residues) Regulations, 2011, prescribed the limits for pesticide residues, naturally occurring toxic substances and metal contaminants.
A scientific panel on pesticides and antibiotic residues was constituted under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), and delegated the power to fix the maximum residue levels (MRL) of pesticides and antibiotic residues in food commodities.
“Further, the exercise for harmonisation of the MRL for pesticide residues in food commodities with Codex standards is presently being undertaken by the FSSAI,” said the minister, while replying to the issue of milk adulteration with oxytocin.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Supreme Court recently took exception to the Centre’s refusal to amend the FSSR, 2011, to make the offence of milk adulteration punishable by life imprisonment, stating the current penalty, of six months in jail, was hardly a deterrent.
Observing that the government was going slow on such a serious issue despite its repeated directions, the apex court directed that progress be informed to the court by December 10, 2014.
During the hearing on that date, the health ministry had filed an affidavit, which notified the court that the ministry was doing a comprehensive review of the Act to accommodate the court’s directions and the suggestions received from FBO.
“We hope that the matter would be dealt with seriously and expeditiously by the Centre,” remarked Anurag Tomar, advocate for the petitioner in the public interest litigation (PIL).
It was charged in the PIL and acknowledged by the court that the reports submitted by various states, prima facie clarified that milk was being laced with white paint, caustic soda, detergent, shampoo, urea, starch and blotting paper, and added that the practice was going on unabated.
“The Centre must come out with the necessary amendment to the Regulations to curb adulteration. We hope that the government would take the appropriate decision during the winter session of Parliament,” the court had stated at an earlier hearing.
The bench had earlier also remarked that it would be foolish to go lightly on adulterators just because no grievous illness or death was reported immediately after someone drank milk laced with poisonous substances.
“The poisoning in the body is gradual and once it happens, people think they are afflicted with cancer and nobody blames milk. Are you waiting for them to add cyanide in milk? Only then instant death would be caused for you to take action,” the court said.
“A proper amendment enhancing the punishment from six months under the FSSR, 2011, is necessary in the larger public interest, so that such type of crimes could be curbed to a large extent,” the court had said on March 13, 2014.
The bench suggested an amendment to the law after the Uttar Pradesh government said it faced problems in prosecuting adulterators under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and seeking life imprisonment after Allahabad High Court ruled in 2010 that IPC could not be invoked when the FSSR, 2011, should prevail.
The apex court found from the status reports filed by Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand that adulteration was rampant in these states, while Delhi claimed no incidents of adulteration of milk.
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