PUNE: The Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has prepared a draft amendment to its Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 and Food Safety and Standards Regulations 2011 to introduce stricter provisions against food adulteration; minister Narhari Zirwal informed the state legislative assembly on Thursday.
Zirwal was responding to questions raised by members of the legislative assembly. MLA Sunil Kamble questioned the rampant food adulteration and alleged the lack of effective action by the FDA to which Zirwal said that the state government intends to take stern action against food business operators involved in adulteration. “The amended draft is currently with the law and judiciary department for review and will be later sent to the central ministry for approval,” the minister said. Within the next three months, stern action will be taken against food business operators involved in adulteration with “visible results on the ground”, Zirwal said. He added that a high-level meeting with senior members would be held on Friday to discuss a roadmap to tackle adulteration and ensure more effective implementation of food safety laws. Kamble further said that the rising incidence of cancer has raised concerns about food quality, and criticised the FDA for acting mainly during festival seasons. He said that adulteration in commonly used items such as milk and paneer needs stricter monitoring.
Whereas Shivajinagar MLA Siddharth Shirole said that the current situation has created fear among citizens about eating food outside. “People think twice before eating out, worrying about falling ill. The number of staff and inspections must increase,” Shirole said, calling for a real-time inspection dashboard and stronger monitoring. Shirole said that despite nearly 1.3 lakh food stalls in the state, only around 30 had been inspected recently. “That is very unfortunate,” he added.
To this, Zirwal acknowledged that staff shortages had affected the department’s functioning. “Earlier, we had only five food safety officers (FSOs) and there was a shortage of 25 FSOs. Each officer is expected to collect around 25 food samples every month. I agree the situation is critical and the output has been poor due to the shortage of staff,” Zirwal said. He added that private testing laboratories may be permitted to support food testing and that laboratories in Pune and Nagpur would soon become fully functional.
MLA Vikas Thakre also raised concerns about the lack of inspection of street food vendors. “There is no information about the quality of water or raw materials they are using. Many stalls operate without food licences,” he said, urging regular inspections. Members also demanded that food testing laboratories be set up in every district and that support be extended to private laboratories under the public-private partnership model.
Members further alleged that sweets are often prepared in unhygienic conditions in slum areas and that substandard food colours and additives such as ajinomoto are widely used in some food items, including Chinese dishes.
MLA Suresh Dhas and other members pointed to weaknesses in the existing law, saying penalties were inadequate and enforcement remained weak. They also alleged that delays in testing and reporting sometimes allowed manipulation of lab results.
