Practical Difficulties with Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006

In Depth

Practical Difficulties with Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006

Som Bathla | June 2012

Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 (FSSA) has been enacted to keep with changing requirements of time and to consolidate the laws relating to food. However, there are certain practical difficulties being faced by the food industry on account of some impracticality in the law…

The much awaited Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 (FSSA) was enacted last year in August 2011, repealing more than five decades old Prevention of Food Adulteration Act (PFA) and Rules framed therein. Alongside PFA, certain other Orders issued under Essential Commodities Act i.e. Fruit Products order, Milk and Milk Products Order, Meet Products Order, Solvent Extracted Oil Order and other Orders issued under the Essential Commodities Act related to the food were also repealed.

The new FSSA has many improved provisions over PFA from different aspects, but regarding prescribing food standards, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) constituted under FSSA has so far only collated all the existing standards stated in PFA Rules in the Form of FSSAI Regulations, which, however, still need a lot of improvement.

While the stress of PFA was more on preventing adulteration and thus had the intent more on regulating the food adulteration issues, whereas FSSA emphasizes more on standardization of the specification of the food products and more concerned about safe food for human consumption. The definition of food is also widened to a great extent to include the unprocessed, partially processed food intended for ultimate human consumption as ‘food’.

However, there are certain anomalies or practical difficulties being faced by the food industry on account of various reasons, few of which have been stated here.

STORAGE CONTROL ORDERS BEING PASSED BY STATES

Firstly, the second schedule of FSSA clearly stipulates the repeal of few listed statutes/orders and it also mentions repeal of any other order issued under theEssential Commodities Act, 1955 (ECA) relating to food. In spite of the explicit stipulation of repeal of all other orders, various states including Maharashtra, Karnataka, which had earlier issued Storage Control Orders (under ECA), primarily to control the storage and hoarding etc. of food items, are still continuing to issue the Storage Control Orders. The objective and rationale of the FSSA was to inter alia consolidate the laws relating to food. But the continuing of issuance of storage control order by the states under ECA raises confusion between the state laws and the Central FSSA and this anomaly should be addressed by the state authorities under Essential commodities Act.

LACK OF SYNCHRONIZATION & COORDINATION : STATE & CENTRAL LICENSING AUTHORITIES

Another practical problem being faced is regarding licensing applications being filed by the Food Business Operators (FBOs). While, online application system at Central Licensing Authority (CLA) is much improved, there are still problems when online applications are filed under State Licensing Authorities (SLA) for certain states like Rajasthan. There is need for improvement in the information technology system and synchronization by the SLA for online filing by the FBOs.

Adding to the woes of the FBOs is the fact that there is not much clarity about theroles and responsibilities amongst the state FSSAI authorities. Though FSSAI has stated the names and contact numbers of the designated officers for different states and the districts thereof on its website, still while contacting the authorities at the ground level, one faced in Karnataka, the concerned officials are not clear about their role under FSSA Laws in accepting the FSSA License Application. This adversely affects the genuine business operations, who intend to comply with the law, but there needs to be proper training and awareness at all levels of FSSAI Authorities.

DEFINITION OF UNPROCESSED OILSEED

Another concern about FSSA is that FSSA has stipulated to cover primary food in the definition of food itself. However this needs to be looked from a different perspective regarding oilseed category. Oilseeds include edible Oilseeds such as Groundnut, Sesame, Mustard (which can be directly consumed) as well as Non-Edible Oilseeds such as Soybeans, Sunflower and Safflower. It is not correct to include the unprocessed oilseed (especially non-edible oilseeds) under the definition of “primary food” and thus cover the entire value-chain from the Mandi, Seed Traders, Warehouses for Storage and the many intermediaries in the value chain in the regulatory control of FSSAI. It is not right to apply the Schedule 4 Hygiene and Food Safety Conditions, as stated in FSS (Licensing) Regulation to becomplied with all intermediaries in oilseed trade, which is not feasible practically.

Moreover, during the Solvent Extraction Process, Edible Oil is only one of the components (in most cases it is the minority product): Soybeans (18%), Mustard Seed (40%), Mustard Cake (10%), Sunflowers (40%), and Sunflower Cake (10%). The majority of the output is deoiled cake which is primarily used in the animal feed industry. So, on this basis also the oilseeds should be out of the definition of food under FSSA.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

From recent past, FSSAI has been coming out with number of advisories to clarify the general public and FBOs regarding different aspects of FSSA law including on licensing front, which is a welcome step. It would be of immense benefit to all, if frequent advisories be issued by the FSSAI to explain/clarify on various aspects of this new law, as the one year transition period is coming to end on August 4, 2012.

Few steps would surely help for better transition to the new law, namely (a) strengthening of information technology system and better integration with the state level machinery; (b) better co-ordination at the ground level amongst FSSAI nominated officials; (c) clarification on certain aspects of the law like one cited above on oilseeds. Any kind of transition takes time. Therefore, it is understandable that revamping the decades-old PFA laws and implementing the new FSSA laws is a herculean task and FSSAI authorities surely must be spending time to improvise, but certain areas need to be looked at with more priority in the interest of general public and food business operators in particular.