Karnataka ready with FSSA structure

Karnataka is now working out all modalities to ensure that the food companies, production plants and hotels, along with street food joints and cart vendors, adhere to the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, enforced from August 5, 2011. The transition to the FSSA from the old PFA (Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954) in the state, will be done through strategies like creating awareness and enforcing Food Safety Management in food business operations.These will include compulsory registration of food companies and outlets with a turnover of Rs 12 lakh or less.Further, a close watch will be kept on street food vendors among other small companies in the related service. Bogged down by the shortfall of dedicated qualified personnel, the state is gearing up to appoint an additional 144 food safety officers (FSOs) to oversee the operations of 176 taluks, seven corporations and other local bodies. Currently, 106 food inspectors of the Bruhut Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) have been re-designated as the food safety officers. One officer will be assigned to two or three taluks each. The FSSA mandates an extensive and an in-depth education drive for creating awareness about the norms of the Act. "In this regard, we have made every effort to ensure stringent inspections on all food processing and vending activities," said a senior official from the health and family welfare department. To begin with, Ram Prasad, the new health commissioner, will now be in-charge of the FSSA operations in the state. The department of health and family welfare has now proposed to the state government to recruit a team of district-level officers for the implementation of the FSSA who will be designated as deputy directors and joint directors of food safety. Presently 30 medical doctors, re-designated from District Surveillance Officers (DSOs) as District Level Officers (DLOs), are undergoing training under the FSSAI. The first such training programme was held from August 23 to 27, 2011, where 19 DLOs were trained along with the teams from Kerala, Pondicherry and Andhra Pradesh. The second batch constituting of 11 officers will be trained from September 12 to 16, 2011. "This would complete the training of the 30 DLOs," stated the senior official. On August 26, a one-day workshop was conducted for the 106 food safety officers. In order to ensure that these FSOs are thorough in their understanding, a session to update them on the FSSA, food sampling process, registration of units and issue of licenses will be held from October.
Further, the FSSA mandates the need for Adjudicating Officers at district level for which the Karnataka government has notified the appointment of Additional District Magistrates via a government order.
In addition, the new Act calls for the appointment of eight food analysts and five food testing labs. One laboratory will be set-up in Bangalore which will be under the ambit of the Public Health Institute and three divisional labs at Mysore, Belgaum and Gulbarga. A BBMP lab. has now been brought under the FSSAI. To man the FSSAI lab. located at the BBMP office, an official from the state health department has been appointed. The health department has also asked for the setting up of a Food Safety Appellate Tribunal which is now under clearance in the department of law.

source: fnbnews