Tamil Nadu - Madurai   

“Amend Food Safety Act”

MADURAI: The Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 should be amended suitably to ensure the survival of micro and small food processing units that scrupulously followed all standards of food safety, said Tamil Nadu Foodgrains Merchants’ Association on Friday.

Addressing a press conference here, S. P. Jeyapragasam, president, said that there was a need to amend the Act in order to stay in tune with ground realities. The Act, in its present form, contained provisions that were in vogue in countries like the United Kingdom and the United States which largely depended on imported food. Here, production of food items depended on the vagaries of monsoon, nature of soil and quality of agricultural inputs. The law should allow declaration of “approximate” nutritional value of a food product, instead of the “exact” value. A person involved in food business should not be made to get licence for his products wherever they were sold. Instead, licence should be obtained at the production points only.

P. Subashchandrabose, former secretary, thanked Union Government and Food Safety and Standards Authority of India Chairman P. I. Suvrathan for issuing a notification to increase the exemption limit from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 12 lakh.

Mr. Bose said a delegation of the association and Federation of Indian Food Industry, accompanied by Dindigul MP N. S. V. Chiththan, met Dr. Suvrathan in New Delhi recently and explained to him the impact the provisions of the Act would have on micro and small traders and manufacturers. The Chairman, he said, had assured to favourably consider all their demands.

The delegation appealed to the Authority to establish quality control laboratories in each district and fix reasonable charges for testing before enforcing the Act. The new Act, it pointed out, insisted that the manufacturer should disclose the percentage of ingredients used. This amounted to revelation of the “trade secret,” it felt. This provision should be deleted as the taste of a product varied from region to region depending on the consumer’s preference. The members also wanted the Authority to amend the Act suitably to allow the use of sodium bi-carbonate in papads (appalam) instead of sorbic acid prescribed by it. The maximum penalty for a violation of its provisions should be Rs 25, 000 instead of the proposed Rs 10 lakh, it said.

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