The FSSAI, in a scheme advertised on its web site, has set out to “empanel reputed professionals and individual consultants who may be asked to provide technical, project management… on a short-term basis.”
The roles, lasting up to six months, will develop policy guidelines and provide professional support to the FSSAI as it sets out to strengthen its regulatory activities.
For much of last year, the FSSAI was at loggerheads with food companies, and was rebuked by India’s Supreme Court for riding roughshod over the constraints of its mandate by issuing a stream of arbitrary notifications and regulations.
The Maggi affair, which saw the popular Nestlé noodle removed from shelves for months after a state testing lab claimed to have found excess levels of lead and monosodium glutamate in the product, further saw the FSSAI cast as the villain.
Now, having cast off from its requirement for food manufacturers to obtain prior approval for all but 377 standardised food products before they could sell their goods, the FSSAI is clearly taking a more pragmatic approach to its approvals process.
This year, it has drafted a detailed list of additives allowed for different categories of food items and permitted the manufacture and sale of “proprietary foods” which are seen as non-standardised but safe.
Regarded by much of the industry as a cloistered government department occupying an impregnable ivory tower, the move announced last week to consult with industry figures will be viewed as an attempt by the FSSAI to be seen as a more collaborative partner.
Though its recruitment notice is typically bureaucratic, over 12 pages complete with annexes, forms and declarations, the posting will be viewed as a critical bid to reach out to “Professionals with relevant background from Academic Research/Not for Profit Organisation/Registered Society/Freelancers/consultancy firms having expertise in the relevant field” who are “eligible to apply provided they possess the minimum experience as specified in Table 1.”
Those recruited will be called on when the need arises, and “lead experts” with over 15 years’ industry experience should expect to be paid a day rate of INR12,000 (US$175) for their labours.
Further bolstering its newfound collaborative credentials, the FSSAI also has plans to work with government agencies, colleges and NGOs to spread awareness of food safety-related issues.
The regulator has been under fire for the poor implementation of food safety awareness. Yet once again, through this initiative, it appears to be enlisting outside individuals and bodies to reach out on its behalf as another hallmark in its charm offensive.
More stories from South Asia…
Long-lost health manual shown to buck Indian school obesity trend
A long-forgotten school health manual, combined with appropriate training for teachers, could be central in the fight against childhood obesity, Chennai researchers have found.
Doctors from the MV Hospital for Diabetes trained schoolteachers to follow the Comprehensive School Health Manual, which was released a decade ago by the south Indian city’s board of education to offer guidance on diet and fitness for classes, though many schools are still not aware of its existence.
The results, which were published in the International Journal of Tropical Diseases (PDF), were "expected but encouraging,” said Vijay Viswanathan, the hospital’s head diabetologist, at a time when Indian youngsters are facing an obesity epidemic.
The research team evaluated the programme’s effectiveness over three years across a group of 1,357 pupils from seven schools, whose changes in weight, eating habits and vascular health were assessed.
Sixty-four per cent of pupils who followed the manual’s guidelines were found to maintain better diets. This group also witnessed a significant reduction in body mass and body fat, and maintained a sustained reduction in calorie intake.
The study began with 22% of girls and 13.5% of boys overweight. “But we found that when teachers were trained, the manual’s guidelines were implemented, and this led to a reduction in body mass index, body fat percentage and diastolic blood pressure as well as better eating habits,” Dr Viswanathan said.
“The campaign's success is evident by the change in the BMI and eating pattern of school kids. The healthy lifestyle was completely adopted by the children.”
The study concluded that: “A structured behaviour intervention delivered through a training of trainers empowered children to adopt healthy behaviours towards weight management. It is crucial to sustain these behaviours for positive impact.”
Over the next two years, MG Hospital plans to help 132 state schools schools in Chennai by offering training to trainers on the programme.
“We will work with the school principal, the physical training teacher and the science teacher. Through this, we are looking at effective implementation of the health manual. We will also follow up with the schools,” Dr Viswanathan said.
Middlemen benefitting most from huge cost disparity for Indian vegetables
The gulf between wholesale and retail prices for vegetables continues to increase far beyond traditional Indian levels, according to an Assocham study.
The majority of Indian retailers are currently selling vegetables like brinjal, cabbage and cauliflower for significantly higher prices than the wholesale price index, the industry body revealed in a report.
It found that the price disparity for essential vegetable had increased to 53.3% between November 2015 and January this year. Traditionally, the difference between wholesale and retail prices is around 30%, the report added.
The study looked at nearly 28 market centres across india, and found that most of these were charging far more than the overall average Indian retail and wholesale prices.
Retailers in Hyderabad were charging an average of 132.3% over the wholesale price, followed by Mumbai (94.7%), Ahmedabad (92.5%), Amritsar (91.4%) and Delhi (86.3%).
Assocham cites middlemen and traders as the beneficiaries of profiteering, while farmers and consumers were the hardest hit.
The government, it said, needed to control retail prices and protect producers’ interests by improving infrastructure and encouraging public-private partnerships to develop cold storage facilities.
“Easy availability of good quality seeds, crop insurance and credit facility also needs to be focused upon,” said Sunil Kanoria, Assocham’s president.
“Providing low-cost of credit to marginal farmers and also providing tax-free incentives for technology upgrades for essential agricultural equipment is also required. The Government also needs to review the transportation policy to reduce the cost push factors of vegetables.”