FSSAI is responsible for ensuring that the domestic regulations of food as well as regulations for imported food in the country are adhered to. It has a pan-India presence. With headquarters at New Delhi and five regional offices at Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Guwahati, it has offices at 20 ports of entry for checking imported food.
Currently, the apex regulator has two large food labs at Kolkata and Ghaziabad and two small ones at Sanauli and Raxaul on Indo-Nepal border. Two new large food labs are in the development stage in Chennai and JNPT, Mumbai. In addition, FSSAI provides oversight for over 250 food labs notified by it.
The Ministry of Health and Family, Government of India, issued orders creating 493 additional posts for the authority. With this, total staff strength of FSSAI would now be 824 against the current strength of 356.
A large majority of the newly-created posts are for technical functions, particularly at the cutting edge. Of these, 255 posts will be for technical officers and 60 posts will be for assistant director, technical, where the staff shortage is particularly acute.
In addition, 74 new posts of Central food safety officers have been created. With this, FSSAI would now be able to handle food safety inspections and enforcement for Central licensees directly instead of entirely depending on the states.
In order to ensure that the country has a modern and robust food control system, the Government has created posts for new functional areas like social and behavioural change communication, training and capacity building and new technologies.
With this, FSSAI would be able to attract a diverse talent pool with special skillsets required for multifarious activities that the food authority has taken up in recent years.
The creation of posts in these specialised cadres is a measure of confidence in FSSAI’s recent capacity- and awareness-building efforts like food safety training and certification (FoSTaC), a large-scale training programme for food safety supervisors/handlers, where 40,000-plus persons have been trained so far; the Safe and Nutritious Food (SNF) initiatives @ Home, School, Workplace, etc. and the recently-launched Eat Right Movement.
Having dedicated staff for such activities will help FSSAI to institutionalise these activities for sustainable change on food safety and healthy nutrition.
By more than doubling the staff strength of FSSAI, the Central government has addressed one of the key concerns raised by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in its performance report of FSSAI that was laid in Parliament last December and also by the Standing Committee of Parliament on Health and Family Welfare in its report on FSSAI laid in Parliament recently.
The creation of these posts was also in line with the National Health Policy released in March 2017, that highlighted the need for preventive healthcare, and specifically mentioned the need to strengthen human resources in FSSAI.
Globally, food control systems in advanced nations have much more staff and resources.
For instance, the United States has a staff of 14,200 in its two agencies, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to look after food safety, and Canada has over 4,000 staff in its food safety inspection services.
Compared to these numbers and international benchmarks in terms of the number of staff deployed in the food regulatory bodies of other countries, India has fewer staff for food safety.
Given the size of the country’s population, the geographical spread and diversity of the country and the widespread prevalence of food businesses in the unorganised sector, 824 posts in the country food safety authority is quite low.
However, with its unique model of partnership with all stakeholders coupled with innovative use of information technology (IT) systems and simultaneous empowerment and capacity-building of consumers and food businesses alike, FSSAI is evolving a low-cost, light-touch regulatory system for food safety and nutrition in the country that could be a model for other developing countries to emulate.
In his remarks, Pawan Kumar Agarwal, chief executive officer, FSSAI, thanked the Government for creation of these posts, and called it a big milestone in the evolution of food safety system in the country.
He hoped that with increased staff and resources, the apex regulator would be able to discharge its responsibility more effectively so as to inspire trust and assure safe and nutrition food for all citizens.
