FSSAI warns officials against arbitrary action

FSSAI warns officials against arbitrary action

Subject : Governance

Context: The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has asked State food safety commissioners to ensure proper due diligence while seizing food products.

Concept : 

• The food safety authority also asked State food safety commissioners to deal with “arbitrary or unreasonable seizures” in a stringent and effective manner.
• Also, to ensure food safety officers are properly trained on procedural aspects of sampling and legal proceedings as stipulated in the the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.
• As per Section 38 of the Act, food safety officers are empowered to take samples of any food products intended for human consumption or seize any food products that appear to be contravention of the regulations.

About FSSAI

• It is an autonomous statutory body that maintains the food safety and standards in India.
• FSSAI is administered by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.
• The Body is functional as per the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.
• The FSSAI has its headquarters at New Delh
• The authority also has 6 regional offices located in Delhi, Guwahati, Mumbai, Kolkata, Cochin, and Chennai.
• The FSSAI comprises of a Chairperson and twenty two members out of which one – third are to be women.
• The Chairperson of FSSAI is appointed by the Central Government.
• Food Safety and Standards Rule, 2011 provides for:
• The Food Safety Appellate Tribunal and the Registrar of the Appellate Tribunal, for adjudication of food safety cases.
• It covers Licensing and Registration, Packaging and Labelling of Food Businesses, Food Product Standards and Food Additives Regulation.
• It prohibits and restricts on sales or approval for Non-Specified Food and Food Ingredients, such ingredients may cause harm to human health.
• It provides for Food Safety and Standards on Organic Food and regulates Food Advertising.

Important Initiatives by FSSAI

Eat Right India – It is a Pan-India cycle movement called as ‘Swasth Bharat Yatra’ aimed to create consumer awareness about eating safe and nutritious food.

Clean Street Food –This involves training the street food vendors and making them aware of the violations as per the FSS Act 2006.

Diet4Life –This is another initiative taken by FSSAI, to spread awareness about metabolic disorders.

Save Food, Share Food, Share Joy –Encouraging people to avoid food wastage and promote food donation. Through this, FSSAI intends to connect food-collecting agencies with the food-producing companies and share the food with the ones in need.

Heart Attack Rewind – It is the first mass media campaign of FSSAI. It is aimed to support FSSAI’s target of eliminating trans fat in India by the year 2022.

FSSAI-CHIFSS – It is collaboration between FSSAI and CII-HUL Initiative on Food Safety Sciences to promote collaborations between Industry, Scientific Community, Academia for food safety.