THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: If you thought the food safety department is ensuring your health by inspecting all eateries and food-processing units, think again. A work-study report prepared by the personnel and administrative reforms department reveals that, in 2022-23, the department carried out inspections at only 73,571 of the five lakh food business operators in the state. The data relates to 140 food safety circle offices.
“According to the food safety quality regulation, the officials should inspect once a year all the establishments which had acquired license or registration. However, only 14.71% of inspections are carried out a year in the state. Even after notices are served to establishments, follow-up action is not carried out to ensure that anomalies are fixed,” the report said.
The food safety quality (licensing and registration) regulation stipulates that a food business operator (FBO) should be granted registration only after inspecting the site. However, the study revealed that registrations are awarded without any site inspection.
“According to the existing method, any individual could obtain the FBO registration if they upload the necessary identification document with the registration application. Because of this, there is a situation in which the food safety department could not carry out enough field-level inspections,” the study pointed out.
The study also found that the department is in the dark on whether the individuals who have received registration thus have started the business permitted or are maintaining the food safety criteria prescribed.
“This has created a situation where the department is unaware of the quality of the food items being sold across the state. If any unwanted incidents are reported, the department could take action against the licensee. However, the department has failed to ensure safe food to the public. Although institutions are working in the state without any license or registration, departments have failed to carry inspections or charge fines.
This is a grave situation. The government exchequer has also suffered due to this,” the report said. Because of the non-availability of official vehicles, in a majority of the cases, the officers could not reach the spot even after receiving complaints about stale food, report stated.
“This has also prevented the collection of samples. Even if the officials reach the spot, there would not be a freezer, and this ultimately jeopardises the whole process,” the study pointed out.