FSSAI has brought 30 lakh food business operators into its ambit

Chennai:

India’s Food Safety and Standard’s Authority (FSSAI) has been facing
roadblocks in regulating imported goods, especially imported
chocolates, even as the food safety regulator has brought in its ambit
30 lakh food business operators.

Speaking during the two-day national seminar on Consumer Product
Safety organized by CONCERT and sponsored by US Consulate in Chennai,
K Chandramouli, chairman of FSSAI, said that during Deepavali a
majority of imported chocolates shipped into India violated the
domestic regulations of zero vegetable fat.

He said while these companies adhere to the US and European food
safety standard, they failed to adhere to Indian standards of zero
vegetable fat. “While testing one of the brands we found that it has
70 per cent of vegetable oil,” said Chandramouli.

Interestingly, after FSSAI tried to crackdown on the imported
chocolates it drew flak for its action. Chandramouli now has left the
issue with the consumers.

He also highlighted how the imported goods were using Chinese or
Arabic labelling making it hard for Indian consumers to know about the
manufacturing as well as expiry date of these goods. “Now things has
improved after FSSAI intervention,” he said.

Interestingly, another big headache for FSSAI is to register the food
business operators. “They can be from a usual sundal seller to big
corporate food manufactuer. This is a really tough task. For the last
three years we had only 30,000 registered food operators. But since we
left it out to the state government who has to enforce the act, we now
have 30 lakh food business operators. But we can’t quantify the exact
numbers,” says Chandramouli.