Relevance: GS-2: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
Key Phrases: State Food Safety Index, Human Resources & Institutional Data, Compliance, Food Testing, Infrastructure and Surveillance, Training & Capacity Building, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954, Eat Right India campaign, Safe and Nutritious Food, Repurpose used Cooking Oil,
Why in News?
- Recently the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) released the State Food Safety Index (SFSI) 2021-22.
Context:
- On World Food Safety Day, Union Health Minister released the 4th State Food Safety Index (SFSI) by FSSAI to measure the performance of States across five parameters of food safety and felicitated the winning State/UTs based on the ranking for the year 2021-22.
What is the State Food Safety Index?
- The index was developed by FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) in 2018-19 to measure the performance of States on five significant parameters of Food Safety.
- The index will help in providing safe and nutritious food to our citizens.
- According to the FSSAI, the index is aimed at encouraging States and UTs to “improve their performance and work towards establishing a proper food safety ecosystem in their jurisdiction…”
- SFSI 2022 is the fourth edition of the SFSI since its inception in 2018-19.
Do you know?
- Every Year, 7th June is observed as World Food Safety Day.
- The United Nations established World Food Safety Day in 2018 to raise awareness of food safety.
- World Food Safety Day is an annual celebration to draw attention and inspire action to help prevent, detect and manage foodborne risks.
- It’s a global collaboration between WHO and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, as well as other member governments and organisations, to minimise possible health concerns posed by food borne diseases.
- Theme World Food Safety Day, 2022 is ‘Safer Food, Better Health’.
- With an estimated 600 million cases of foodborne illnesses annually, unsafe food is a threat to human health and economies, disproportionally affecting vulnerable and marginalized people, especially women and children, populations affected by conflict, and migrants.
- An estimated 420000 people around the world die every year after eating contaminated food and children under 5 years of age carry 40% of the foodborne disease burden, with 125 000 deaths every year.
Parameters of Food Safety
The SFSI takes into account the performance of the States on five key parameters, each of which is assigned a different weightage in the assessment.
- Human Resources & Institutional Data:
- This carries a weightage of 20%
- It measures the availability of human resources like number of Food Safety Officers, Designated Officers facility of adjudications and appellate tribunals etc.
- Compliance:
- This carries the highest weightage, 30%.
- This is the most important parameter and measures overall coverage of food businesses in licensing & registration commensurate with size and population of the State/UTs, special drives and camps organized, yearly increase, promptness and effectiveness in issue of state licenses/ registrations.
- “Promptness” in attending to consumer grievances, and availability of a help desk and web portals, too, come under this parameter.
- Food Testing—Infrastructure And Surveillance:
- Weighted at 20%, this measures the “availability of adequate testing infrastructure with trained manpower in the States/ UTs for testing food samples”.
- It takes into account the “availability and effective utilization” of Mobile Food Testing Labs and registration and utilization of InFoLNet (Indian Food Laboratories Network).
- Training & Capacity Building:
- This parameter carries the lowest weightage, at 10%.
- It measures States’ performance on training and capacity building of regulatory staff.
- Consumer Empowerment:
- This carries a weightage of 20%.
- It evaluates the states and UTs on their performance on various consumer empowering initiatives of FSSAI, such as participation in Food Fortification, Eat Right Campus, BHOG (Blissful Hygienic Offering to God), Hygiene Rating of Restaurants, Clean Street Food Hubs, etc.
- Besides, the States’ initiatives for creating consumer awareness are also considered under this parameter.
How have the States and UTs performed this year?
- In the category of the 20 large States, Tamil Nadu with an overall score of 82 out of 100 has performed the best and been ranked 1st on SFSI 2021-22, while Andhra Pradesh with an overall score of 26 has been ranked at the bottom —17th place (some states share a common rank).
- Following Tamil Nadu in the rankings of the larger states are Gujarat (rank 2nd with a score 77.5), Maharashtra (3rd with 70), Himachal Pradesh (4th with 65.5) and West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh (sharing 5th with a score of 58.5).
- Among the eight small states, Goa with a score of 56 has been ranked at the top, while Arunachal Pradesh (rank 8th and score 21) is at the bottom.
- Among the eight Union Territories, Jammu and Kashmir with a score of 68.5 has been ranked 1st and Lakshadweep (score 16) as the bottom. Delhi with a score of 66 has been ranked at 2nd place.
FSSAI
- Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is an autonomous statutory body established under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 (FSS Act).
- Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India is the administrative Ministry of FSSAI.
- Headquarters: Delhi.
- FSS Act, 2006 consolidates various acts & orders that had
earlier handled food related issues in various Ministries and
Departments, such as–
- Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954
- Fruit Products Order, 1955
- Meat Food Products Order, 1973
- Vegetable Oil Products (Control) Order, 1947
- Edible Oils Packaging (Regulation) Order 1988
- Milk and Milk Products Order, 1992
Do you know?
Other Initiatives of FSSAI:
- Eat Right India: The aim is not just to provide food to one and all, but to provide quality food to everyone. With this initiative, FSSAI intends to make good quality food accessible to every citizen of the country
- Clean Street Food: This involves training the street food vendors and making them aware of the violations as per the FSS Act 2006. This will also help in the social and economic upliftment of street food vendors
- Diet4Life: This is another initiative taken by FSSAI, to spread awareness about metabolic disorders.
- Jaivik Bharat
- Repurpose used Cooking Oil (RUCO)
- Codex Alimentarius Commission Network of Professional of Food and Nutrition (NetProFaN)
What is Codex Alimentarius Commission?
- The Codex Alimentarius, or "Food Code" is a collection of standards, guidelines and codes of practice adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission.
- The Codex Alimentarius Commission is a joint intergovernmental body of the Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization.
- Currently, it has 189 members including India.
Way Forward
- In an area such as food safety, States alone cannot make a big difference without the support of the Central government. Liberal assistance should be provided to the States and Union Territories as far as laboratory infrastructure and improvement of manpower, both technical and non-technical, are concerned.
- Further, the private sector should come forward in a big way to have staff trained at their cost and where such persons are used productively for the purpose.
- Every stakeholder in the field of food safety should realize is that each one has a critical role to play, and there has to be collective and well-coordinated action.
Source: Indian Express
Mains Question:
Q. Discuss the challenges related to food safety and standards in India. What measures may be adopted to overcome these challenges?
