THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Food safety enforcement in the capital is taking a hit as field officers are being routinely diverted to duties linked to the movement of Chief Minister V D Satheesan, leaving the already understaffed department with fewer personnel to inspect eateries, collect food samples and respond to public complaints. The deployment of food safety officers for the chief minister’s VIP movement is a new practice, with officials being assigned to airports and even relatively small events attended by the chief minister.
“There are VIP duties almost every day, mostly at the airport and for various events. When food safety officers are deployed there, they are forced to skip their scheduled routine work.
They are unable to cover even 80 percent of the scheduled work every month,” said a source. The district has only 16 field officers to handle food safety enforcement across the district. The officers are responsible for inspections of hotels, restaurants, markets and other food establishments, besides investigating complaints, collecting samples, initiating legal action and conducting awareness programmes.
“We have only 16 field officers in the entire district, and we are already handling a huge workload. We simply do not have the staff strength to spare officers for such duties,” the source said. It is learned that the department requires a minimum of 50 food safety officers to cover the entire district.
The officers are now being assigned to airport duties as well as events attended by the chief minister. According to officials, food safety officers are deployed at venues such as Kanakakkunnu Palace and other inauguration and official events.
The immediate casualty is targeted food sampling, which is crucial for detecting adulteration and contamination. “Our targeted sampling work isn’t functioning properly at all. We aren’t able to file cases, conduct awareness programmes or do our actual enforcement work,” said a food safety officer. Public complaints are also likely to face delays when officers are deployed elsewhere.
“Even if the chief minister eats something at an event and we test it, by the time the results come, it takes so much time. There is little practical use,” the source said.