Parliament committee slams FSSAI for 'non-serious' approach in enforcing safety standards

New Delhi: Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) headed by senior Congress MP KC Venugopal on Friday took to task the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) for its “non-serious” approach in surveillance and enforcement of food safety standards.

It asked the FSSAI to furnish a clear roadmap for manpower expansion, filling vacancies and reducing dependency on outsourcing of jobs as well as on penalties imposed and licences suspended or cancelled during enforcement actions.

Officials of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and FSSAI briefed the PAC, which is currently undertaking a ‘Performance Review of Regulatory Bodies established by Act of Parliament’, including FSSAI. Sources said MPs cutting across party lines found fault with the functioning of FSSAI.

Sources said the MPs raised concern over the “non-serious” approach of the FSSA in dealing with adulteration of food items like ghee and milk. There is no mechanism across India to check adulteration properly, they complained.

The instance of  adulterated ghee being supplied to Tirupati temple was also mentioned during the meeting with sources saying that the MPs were of the view that the FSSAI did not effectively carry out its responsibilities.

The PAC was concerned about the manpower situation in the FSSAI and found that even the jobs of lab technicians were outsourced. There was a shortage in most technical positions at a time the market was growing exponentially with online food chains and cloud kitchens mushrooming, sources said.

The FSSAI did not tackle the issue of misleading advertisements and labelling, the MPs were quoted by sources as saying.