- 7 weeks ago
FSSAI CEO Rajit Punhani has backed Maharashtra FDA Commissioner Tukaram Mundhe’s aggressive enforcement of food safety rules, saying his work proves that “if there’s a will, there’s a way”.
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00:14just about everybody in this country now wants to know what they are eating what exactly are
00:19they consuming when they open that bag of chips is it excessive has it got excessive sodium has
00:25it got excessive fat what about saturated fat what is the food that we are eating this question is
00:31being asked again and again by everyone given that india has become the diabetes capital of the world
00:37we were already the diabetes capital and now we are headed in the direction of becoming the obesity
00:43capital of this world so whose business is it to regulate the food that we are eating the food
00:49safety standard authority of india now in news every single day has been doing this work for a
00:56very long time now but recently it has got into a lot of activities when it comes to looking at
01:04companies that are doing fraudulent practices mislabeling and misleading the consumer you and i
01:10and the person who is monitoring and tracking every single detail is the head of the f s s ai
01:17the ceo
01:18mr rajit punhani is with us today thank you sir so much for your time and thank you for speaking
01:23to india today and aach tak uh jesse ke minne kaha f s s ai a body kaapi samai se
01:30function kariye
01:30lekin aaj kal har koi f s s ai ke baare mein jana chata kya job hai f s s
01:36ai ka there's been a lot of work
01:38that you've done in your one year tenure that interestingly you complete today i want to ask you
01:43how big is this responsibility on your shoulders at this point in time in regulating the food that
01:50all of us are eating so first of all i'd just like to explain the structure yes because uh that's
01:58important this uh we fs s ai is the food safety and standards authority of india so our main mandate
02:06is
02:07to provide safe food and uh set standards of what kind of food should be available in the market
02:16the enforcement is primarily with the state governments and thankfully uh now although i
02:23have been trying for quite some time to get this message across but it is now i think got across
02:29that
02:29the state governments also have a major responsibility in uh food safety in we have about 76 lakh uh food
02:42business operators what we call fbos out of which almost 99 percent is again with the state government
02:49so while we set the standards so we have about 21 scientific panels and uh there's a separate panel
02:57for additive separate panel for color separate panel for pesticides separate panel for meat separate
03:02panel for dairy products similarly there are many panels so they they're all eminent scientists
03:08and they study that what should the standards be then the enforcement is basically with the states
03:16but how is the enforcement done uh what is visible is only the rates the but there's much more that
03:24goes
03:24behind that so if for example there's a case of unsafe food if there's a case of unsafe food then
03:32it's a criminal offense okay and a prosecution is launched by the uh state authorities with the judicial
03:40majesty okay if it is a um mislabeling or a substandard uh product then uh substandard means what
03:50substandard means that what he has declared suppose he has declared that there's a five percent protein
03:57in this but in our test we realize there's no there's three percent protein so it is not unsafe since
04:03it
04:04is not harmful but he has misled misled so then a prosecution is launched with the additional district
04:11magistrate of the district okay and that additional district magistrate has the power to impose penalty the
04:18judicial magistrate has the power to impose fine and also imprison the violator so the the in in this
04:26so this is our structure that we have our scientific panels and then uh the structure is there in the
04:33state where you have the food safety commissioner so now people are realizing that the food safety
04:40commissioner is also an important person in the state and under the fss act he has the he has quite
04:49a lot of powers so then below him there's a designated officer now as per the act the designated officer
04:57has
04:57also certain powers and below that is the food safety officer so the food safety officer is what we call
05:04at the cutting edge level he is normally or she is the person who goes to uh inspect the uh
05:11manufacturing
05:12premises or inspect the restaurant and then comes up with a report which goes to the designated officer
05:18so the fssai is not directly involved say if a restaurant is serving substandard food if there's like
05:24a cockroach found hypothetical situation in a restaurant people are quick to tag fssai wrong right
05:33if it's a central licensee then right yes but if it's not a central licensee it's a state licensee then
05:42it's the state uh state uh government how does the consumer know no so we have a portal so we're
05:48not
05:48expecting the consumer to know yeah um we have a food safety connect app and we have a for our
05:55portal
05:56first cost portal so you can complain on this app when you complain on this app we have a system
06:03which tells us whether this is a central licensee or it's a state licensee if it's a state licensee
06:10then we send it to the food safety commissioner of the state if it's a central licensee then we have
06:15our own teams who will go and inspect okay you know what i'll tell you what's really been happening in
06:21the country and correct me if i'm wrong it does appear that food safety officers only come into action
06:26when there is focus when there is some scrutiny uh during festival time during diwali when there is
06:32fake koya all of that is destroyed other than that there's been very little action and that's the
06:37reason why there's been so much hera fairy and gandagi in the food that we're eating so why do you
06:43think this has been happening is it a problem of uh you know the the the office is not doing
06:49their jobs is
06:50it a vacancy issue because i have a number with me and i'll come to you that come to that
06:54in a moment
06:55from now but why is this happening that they don't seem to be really doing their job and that's the
06:59reason why one tukara munde comes and everybody is hailing him because he's doing what he's supposed to
07:05do so i think the importance of the department is now picking up and consumer awareness is also
07:12picking up okay as i said many consumers did not even know that there was a food safety department
07:17now there was a food safety commissioner so now people know and uh consumer awareness is there
07:22so the food safety officer has been doing inspections it's not that he's not been doing
07:27inspections and it's not that see we we there are 1.4 billion people here that means 1.5 trillion
07:35meals are consumed um every year so by and large it's not that the food is unsafe you know the
07:43by and
07:43large these are i mean if you look at a percentage of the meals then the the complaints uh that
07:50we get
07:51is a is a is a very small um percentage but that's also because very many people aren't complaining to
07:57you that is one and secondly is the awareness is not there yes there are things which are in your
08:02jurisdiction there are things which are not in your jurisdiction now things in your jurisdiction is
08:05something that's been in use this week has got the uh front of the package labeling which has been
08:10you know in the works for a while now i want to ask you you know a win really for
08:16all of us with
08:17you introducing the uh you know deciding to go ahead now introduce this label but uh there's a lot more
08:25that could have been done is what many argue and i'll tell you what that is in a country like
08:29us where
08:30there is little uh you know where a lot of people may not know how to read and write a
08:34little drastic but
08:35people say why not tobacco like warnings to tell you that this pictorial warnings for example a little
08:42bit a little extreme maybe but pictorial warnings that will tell you that this food item if it consumed
08:48in excess is going to cause use you know if not cancer then maybe other problems diabetes show that
08:56pictorially make it stronger see internationally yes uh what our proposal is but it's it's it's it's a
09:04proposal right now because the case is pending in the honorable supreme court so it's a proposal the
09:10final judgment will be taken by the honorable court but um nowhere in the world internationally
09:18do they do ours is the most strict proposal we have a red we have proposed a red warning
09:23while in most other countries they have a black only 16 countries have made it mandatory okay okay
09:31and most of them have made it a black mark we have proposed a red mark so i think that
09:39way we are more
09:40strict than most of the other countries uh processed food see all food is a lot of the food we
09:47have is
09:47processed you know even achar is processed you know yes in reference to ultra processed foods then yes
09:53so so because the definition of ultra processed food is internationally not um there's no consensus
09:59on that so that's why we have what we have done is we have taken icmr this indian council of
10:05medical research and their national institute of nutrition nutrition n i n they have set certain
10:11standards of what is high fat what is high salt and what is high sugar so they have come up
10:17with that
10:18um with that standard so it is then easy to define what is high fat what is high salt and
10:27what is high
10:27sugar and then we are putting a red warning label other countries one can check chile canada and all
10:34these countries they all put a black label so should you write high in salt high in sodium or high
10:41in sugar
10:41high in fat wherever it applies should should that also not be done no that is also being done in
10:48the
10:49proposal in the hexagon it will be written high fat high salt high sugar whatever what's going to be the
10:55size of it a lot of people say it should be big enough and that is not something that the
10:59fsa is
10:59doing the size it should be bold and it should be it should be it should be big enough for
11:05you know
11:06the consumer to pick that packet and be warned yes about it yes yes we'll follow international
11:10laws in hindi english as well in the region and regional languages and regional languages yes
11:18you know the other argument is that if the at least in the first phase that the product has to
11:24be high
11:24in sugar and salt at least two nutrients for the warning to kick in in the second phase you'll allow
11:30it to happen so the argument is that why wait for what if a product is high in sugar and
11:35salt
11:36but not high in fat then what happens we can do that but again if you look at other countries
11:41because
11:41this this has come up only 16 countries have made it mandatory so um in these 16 countries they've all
11:49done it face-wise okay they've all done it face-wise because implementation is also a challenge you know to
11:56um to have all your products as um as you know red warning then then one will not even uh
12:04you know
12:05know whether you know how to differentiate between a more unhealthy product and a less unhealthy product
12:11okay so that differentiation has to be there so in all countries it has been done in a fair in
12:18a
12:18manner it is in most countries in fact it has taken three to four years we hopefully once it once
12:25uh
12:26the honorable court gives its judgment uh we'll be able to roll it out much sooner so the challenge
12:32here is not of just uh you know biscuits and chocolates and other ultra processed foods but in
12:36this country also about how these products are often advertised we've seen energy drinks the way they
12:42are sold it's a larger problem it's this ecosystem you know that says that a particular food item is
12:47healthy but it isn't how big a problem is that because influencers are involved advertisers are
12:53involved you sell a biscuit uh saying that it's rich in cashew it's rich in dried fruits when you
12:58have you might have just one piece of cashew in the whole pack how big a challenge is that that
13:03is a
13:04big challenge and energy drinks for example that's what i'm saying i'm saying internationally if we see
13:09then we are far better off than most other countries uh as far as our regulations are concerned
13:16enforcement enforcement is a challenge but now uh i'm gonna say i'm so happy that now the state food
13:22safety commissioners have become very active and they are enforcing it so our regulations are clear
13:28for example energy drink now energy drink is allowed uh to be used uh you know because people keep on
13:36comparing that with europe and us and uk so there they allow it we don't allow it you know so
13:42because
13:43they are basically caffeinated uh beverages it's basically coffee and sugar and some enzymes so
13:49so this we have uh i think in the recent past we have managed to reform it in a great
13:56manner and
13:58those who are you know who are who are being slow in many many companies have been very fast in
14:05changing
14:06those who have been slow have have been prosecuted and uh we are facing some cases in courts also
14:12and uh i'm very sure it's a matter of time we have also you know one celebrity i say this
14:18one celebrity
14:20in fact wrote back to us and he sent a copy to all the uh all whatever his endorsements are
14:27that you
14:27please take it down immediately who's that no we're not we don't want to tell us about the product at
14:33least
14:33no you won't name the product so uh you know uh i want to ask you moving ahead of this
14:39um analog paneer
14:40a lot of you and cry about this as well analog paneer is actually something that you allow
14:45the sale of analog paneer provided the manufacturers declaring that this is not dairy paneer
14:51that is something that is allowed isn't it so it's very different from yes but eight states have
14:56already uh not allowed it yes and we are in the process also of not allowing our process is a
15:02little
15:02more uh lengthy the state food safety commissioners are in the field they have uh you know more i would
15:11say power to do it for um you know for a certain period of time uh what we want to
15:17do is that we want
15:18to do away with it completely so uh that process is on it has been uh you know it is
15:25uh have been
15:26approved by the food authority and it's a matter of time before how soon they will see analog paneer
15:32being banned in india across india see we'll have to see the process is that we take out a draft
15:37notification okay so we will be taking out a draft notification because that is uh you know it is it
15:44is recognized that is an internationally recognized method process you know for example a lot of
15:49people say that oh why don't you just ban him or send him to jail or you know so we
15:54have a process
15:55like all our courts have a process our adm courts have a process our judicial courts have a process so
16:01here also we have a process that we first publish a draft and that draft is published for 60 days
16:08it also
16:08goes to the wto um you know site because analogs are allowed worldwide so you know it um it goes
16:19to
16:19the wto site so that and they are the traders you know the importers the exporters they also are aware
16:24that this is a draft and then they give their comments and suggestions so uh so that's why it
16:30will take a little i'm wondering why analog paneer was allowed in the first place in the country why
16:35because dairy is expensive not everybody can afford dairy paneer no that was not it was allowed
16:41internationally yes and then we allowed it but it uh as far as nutrients are concerned it adds
16:47zero value to isn't it it's it's just a matter of taste it mimics the taste of paneer but there
16:52is zero
16:53value addition when it comes to nutrients yes so it was internationally allowed and even now it is
16:58internationally allowed in in europe and uh this thing they have analog cheese it's allowed in india
17:04um what happens paneer the demand for paneer is huge it's not that much as you know paneer is not
17:10consumed that much and it's also a because we have a large vegetarian population there it also it's a
17:16because it's a source of protein for vegetarians so that's why in india the problem is um is you know
17:25different so uh so now anyhow eight uh states have already banned it and uh it's a matter of time
17:33before now the restaurants also uh will need to declare you know that okay this paneer is in these
17:40eight states they already have started you already have a you already have this rule right for restaurants
17:45to declare yes yes to declare so they and in eight states they have ensured it that you know the
17:50the restaurants have to declare that this is um this is paneer and the other is not does not have
17:57dairy does not have you know milk all right thank you so much for speaking with us and good luck
18:03with
18:03all the crackdowns moving ahead fine thank you