FSSA ineffective in curbing food adulteration cases

The newly notified Food Safety & Standards Act, 2006, does not seem to be effective in curbing adulteration of food articles as is the case with previous Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954. This has become evident from statistics which show that the Government of Kerala has failed to take stringent action against the issue during the period 2004-2012. An RTI application filed by the Human Rights Defence Forum (HRDF), Kerala, has revealed the details. Explaining to F&B News, D B Binu, general secretary, HRDF, Kerala, said, “Surprisingly, out of the 95,261 samples tested between 2004 and 2012, 2,190 food samples were found to be adulterated and authorities initiated action in only 1,912 cases.” Binu explained that the information was revealed to the organisation based on the RTI filed by it and further probe in the case evolved based on the number of food adulteration cases being reported in Kerala by the media. Binu added that it was a sad state of affairs that the court convicted only 660 persons responsible for adulteration, which included reputed hotels, in the state. Also those who were convicted were punished with only Rs 2,000 as fine. While the remaining 757 persons were acquitted, it was revealed that the maximum number of food adulteration was being reported and detected in the Ernakulam district of Kerala followed by Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode. Binu stressed that the new law, the FSSA enforced on August 5, 2011, had created a lot of confusion in terms of registration and licensing and also in the implementation of the Act across the nation.
He pointed out that since the new Act failed, several important tasks such as registration and licensing of food labs and prosecution in cases of food adulteration were left incomplete. Hence, he wanted the new law to be implemented properly at the earliest. 

Source:http://www.fnbnews.com