HYDERABAD: Hyderabad may have bagged UNESCO’s ‘Creative City of Gastronomy’ title, but the food here may not be all that safe, according to a recent report by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). Telangana, the report says, is one of India’s 10 states that fare poorly in enforcing food safety laws.
This has been attributed to the lack of food safety officers (FSOs) and good labs to test food samples.
“Many poorly-performing states have not been able to put in place full-time officers for food safety and do not have proper food testing laboratories despite the food safety law coming into force over a decade ago,” says the 2018-19 report on food safety enforcement.
As per official data, Telangana has just five FSOs, as opposed to a sanctioned strength of 58. At the district level, of the sanctioned 12 district food safety designated officers, only nine are working.
‘Of 1,760 food samples in TS, 23 found unsafe’
According to the FSSAI report, 1,760 food samples were analysed in Telangana, of which 168 were found to have safety and quality problems.
As many as 23 samples were found to be unsafe. The report mentions that 33 criminal cases and 191 civil cases were registered in the state regarding non-compliance with food safety laws.
However, only three cases led to convictions, and penalties were levied in just 15 cases. Besides Telangana, the ‘poorly-performing’ states are Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Assam, Jharkhand, Odisha, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Uttarakhand.
Why this distasteful distinction?
Telangana has a lack of full-time food safety officers and good labs to test food samples, as per the FSSAI report.