FSSAI order for half-yearly lab test of food items draws flak 

The recent FSSAI order that mandates all Food Business Operators (FBOs), which are manufacturers, re-packers and re-labellers, to get all food products to be tested once every six months and to upload the lab reports on a portal has drawn flak from various NGOs and civil society groups.

They, along with several prominent citizens, have urged the FSSAI to withdraw the mandatory order requiring even small manufacturers to test and report food products, fearing that it would be financially unviable for lakhs for small businesses to conform to the new order.

In a letter to the Chairperson and the CEO of the Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), they said the order seemed to have many adverse economic implications for the livelihoods of small as well as medium enterprises of food manufacturing, apart from creating an extremely onerous online mechanism. "These will work against many FBOs," they said, noting that the order was without any scientific basis and circumvented the mandate of FSSAI apparatus itself.

"This is just a way of killing most FBOs in the country, paving the way for big brand food industry to take over. FSSAI’s regulations in any case favour such brands and not small FBOs, as was seen in the past too. We collectively urge you to please withdraw the said order immediately and rely on FSSAI’s inspection, sampling and testing mechanisms for ensuring food safety," the letter said.

"When the regulatory apparatus has both these mechanisms apart from routine entry and inspection processes where Food Safety Officers and Food Analysts are already at work, why is the responsibility of food testing being thrust upon manufacturers themselves? What about the conflict of interest involved in this process? More importantly, what about the costs involved and who will reimburse the FBOs and how - for each product, it will cost in the range of Rs 5,000 to Rs 19,500 and therefore, at least Rs 10,000 for testing of the product two times a year and many businesses deal with at least 15-20 products (for products like honey, it will cost at least Rs. 30,000/- per test and for heavy metals testing, private labs are charging Rs 13,000 or so per product)?

The small FBOs with an annual turnover of less than ₹12 lakh are likely to cause lesser risk in any eventuality and therefore, requires them to only register with the regulator, whereas businesses above ₹12 lakh are required to obtain licenses to operate, they said. "Additionally, does India have the lab testing facilities for lakhs and lakhs of samples to be continuously tested for all the parameters that FSSAI is laying down?" the letter sent by 150 signatories said.

The signatories included Save Our Rice Network, Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture (ASHA), Safe Food Alliance, Tamil Nadu Organic Farmers Federation, and Beej Swaraj Abhiyan.