FSSAI plans real-time surveillance, tracking, sampling and analysis of food items, says CEO G. Kamala Vardhana Rao

New Delhi: The Food Safety Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) plans real-time surveillance, tracking, sampling and analysis of food items with the festive season underway, said CEO G. Kamala Vardhana Rao in an interview. 

These food items will include spices, milk and milk products among others, he said. 

Real-time surveillance involves officials watching the process on a screen with live updates from districts.

The plan comes in the backdrop of Hong Kong detecting ethylene oxide in pre-packaged spice products from MDH and Everest. Rao said FSSAI has also sensitized quick commerce platforms such as Zepto, Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart to ensure quality and safety of food delivery. Excerpts:  

You called a meeting with quick commerce platforms? Why?  

FSSAI’s mandate is to ensure good quality and safe food across the country and whatever food is coming through food handlers should be safe and in good condition. We need to ensure food packaging is done correctly by the Food Business Operators (FBOs) and they are following Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs) set by us. Food handlers, while on duty, have to be hygienic and in good health, i.e., they should not suffer from cough, cold and fever. Their food transporting vehicle should be well-maintained so as to prevent food from spoiling even during erratic weather while transporting food items. So, we have emphasized these aspects of food safety and urged FBOs to give proper training to the food handlers. 

What is your major challenge to ensure food safety? 

The major challenges are awareness generation among the public in maintaining hygiene protocol, and training of the officials in the states/UT level because we have more than 7.5 million FBOs in the country, out of which 36,000 companies are having a turnover of more than ₹20 crores holding a central license from FSSAI and the rest of them are having turnover below ₹20 crore.

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 At the FSSAI, we have approx. 850 officials and 247 laboratories throughout the country. However, there is a huge requirement of staff at the state level. There is also a proposal on cards to establish new FSSAI offices in different states. 

What kind of food safety surveillance have you planned?  

We have planned to do national-level surveillance for various food items, which includes all kinds of edible oils, spices, milk and milk products, honey, grains and pulses. A dashboard is being prepared to see live tracking sampling and analysis done across the country. This data will let us know the compliance status of food safety standards in our country, why samples are failing and the root cause of the failed samples. The entire process will help us to determine the quality and safety of these food items and revisit the standards, if needed. 

What are your next targets?

I have urged the state/UT food commissioner to increase the surveillance of slaughterhouses and fish markets and sensitize people working in those set ups to follow good hygiene standards. In the next three years, we have planned to educate and train around 2.5 million fish handlers. Last year, we trained 700,000 food handlers on hygiene protocols.  

Are you also providing hand holding for other countries in terms of food safety? 

We have done MoUs with Nepal, Maldives, Bhutan and Bangladesh to enhance food safety, regulatory frameworks, trade processes and increasing technical collaboration. In many parameters, we are better than many of the countries, for example-in testing methodology, laboratory infrastructure etc.

How is FSSAI ensuring safety and quality of imported food items?  

Last year, we rejected more than 350 consignments from various countries on food safety and quality parameters which include commodities such as dates, whisky and high-risk food products—dairy products, seafood and meat. We have also developed a Food Import Rejection Alert (FIRA) Portal—a digital tool for exchange of information on food import rejections by India. It acts as an online interactive interface for rapid dissemination of information amongst authorities worldwide on food safety and health risks derived from rejected food and to ensure enhanced traceability & transparency.