VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh has stood last in the large States category in the Food Safety Index 2021-22 released on Tuesday to mark the World Food Safety Day with the theme ‘Safer Food, Better Health’. The State has slipped one place from the previous year’s 19th spot. AP stood 19th among the 20 large States with 36 points in the previous year’s Food Safety Index (FSI). The State figured at the bottom of the list with 26 points (17th) this time.
The FSI reflects the overall performance of States and Union Territories on various parameters of food safety, which are classified into five factors assigned with separate weightage marks. In all the categories, AP figured at the bottom of the list with lowest marks. It secured zero marks in ‘Food Testing - Infrastructure and Surveillance’, which has 20% weightage. This parameter measures availability of adequate testing infrastructure with trained manpower for testing food samples. The States with NABL accredited labs and adequate manpower score more in this parameter.
The availability and effective utilisation of Mobile Food Testing Labs and registration and utilisation of InFoLNet (Indian Food Laboratories Network) are also examined under this parameter, the report said.
The other factors include Human Resources and Institutional Data with 20% weightage. This parameter is to check the availability of a strong ecosystem of enforcement commensurate with the size and population of the State as well as participation of other departments and stakeholders in food safety activity at the State and district levels.
“This parameter measures the availability of human resources like number of Food Safety Officers, designated officers, facility of adjudications and appellate tribunals, functioning of State/district level Steering Committees, pendency of cases and their monitoring and participation in the Central Advisory Committee meetings of the Food Authority,” it stated.
When it comes to compliance, which has a weightage of 30% and considered the most important parameter and measures overall coverage of food businesses in licensing and registration according to the size and population of the State, special drives and camps organised, yearly increase, promptness and effectiveness in issuance of State licences and registrations, AP stood last along with three other States with 10% marks.
This parameter considers the inspections carried out for high risk food businesses and the number of samples drawn for testing. “Promptness in attending to the consumer grievances and availability of help desk and web portals are also examined under this parameter,” the report noted. When it comes to Training and Capacity Building, which focuses on training and capacity building of regulatory staff and the availability of trained Food Safety Supervisors in food businesses across the State, AP stood 14th.
Similarly, in the Consumer Empowerment parameter, AP placed 15th. This parameter measures the performance in various consumer empowering initiatives of the FSSAI like participation in food fortification, BHOG (Blissful Hygienic Offering to God), Hygiene Rating of Restaurants, Clean Street Food Hubs, etc. “Action taken for coverage of food fortification in the open market, government safety net programmes and availability of fortified products in all districts are taken into consideration,’’ the report said.