The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) had issued a directive to food safety authorities across all states and union territories to step up surveillance and enforcement actions against unsafe food products in light of the upcoming festive season.
The festive season typically brings a spike in demand for multiple food items such as dairy products, sweets, snacks and savouries including Namkeen, papad/fryums, edible oil, beverages, ghee, etc. Beyond the food items mentioned, the FSSAI also asks regional agencies to expand the list of targeted commodities as per local eating and consumption patterns.
As per the directive, heightened inspection and enforcement actions are meant to prevent the circulation of “adulterated, counterfeited and unsafe food products”.
FSSAI gave the company an opportunity to appeal against the Food Analyst’s report under the FSS Act, 2006, within a prescribed time period. In order to address this public health concern, all enforcement officials (Designated Officers/ Food Safety Officers/ Central Food Safety Officers), under the directives of their respective commissioners, will be deployed to conduct inspection and sampling in their respective regions during the festive period. As per judgement, food hot spots and other sensitive locations are to come under special focus in this matter. In addition, the order calls for the strategic deployment of Food Safety on Wheels (FSWs), a functional mobile laboratory for food testing, in prominent market areas. Based on intel received, the initiative is meant to push for on-spot-testing of food safety norms, strengthening hygiene vigilance and boosting consumer confidence during a period of flooded demand in the market. The FSSAI has, in recent times, cracked down on multiple eateries and products to ensure compliance with food safety norms. Nestle, however, claimed that the product was safe to consume and compliant will all applicable regulatory requirements. Hence, the order ahead of the festive season is the latest directive in a series of crackdowns by the food safety regulatory body to enforce compliance with safety norms.
The body recently banned the sale of Nestle’s “Low Fat Dairy Whitener” after a sample of the product taken from The Lalit hotel in New Delhi’s Connaught Place was declared to be “unsafe” and “substandard”.
