Technology-based food safety surveillance

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has urged the states and union territories to ramp up surveillance at popular tourist destinations to ensure heightened safety standards in preparation for the peak tourist season from November through March. Strengthening food safety inspection calls for the states to recruit more food inspectors and roll out mobile food safety laboratories. The enforcement of food safety norms throughout the year will ensure that Food Business Operators (FBO) ramp up their capacity to cater to higher demand during tourist season while maintaining hygiene and other food safety precautions. Guwahati Municipal Corporation authorities sealing a dozen restaurants in the city after detecting food preparation and storage in those unhygienic and unsafe for public health has brought to light the absence of regular inspection that allowed these restaurants and food establishments to run business without caring for food safety norms. The FSSAI has urged the states/UTs to increase surveillance samples and deploy Food Safety on Wheels mobile vans for this purpose. The apex food regulator has also laid emphasis on training FBOs under Food Safety Training and Certification to ensure food safety and hygiene for all citizens. It has set the target of states/UTs training 25 lakh food handlers, including those in university, college, and hostel canteens, by March 2026. It is important to find out if food safety norm violation has been taking place due to lack of awareness or out of negligence towards public health. Awareness among consumers on consumption of only safe and hygienic food is an integral part of efforts to ensure food safety standards. However, consumers do not have access to the kitchen and food preparation area, due to which it is not possible for them to know beforehand if food served to them meets the safety norms or not. They trust the restaurant or food stalls and assume that authorities carry out regular inspections of food preparation to certify adherence to adequate food safety norms. While the surprise inspection by food inspectors is required to nab the wilful violators among FBOs, regular inspection is essential to reassure the consumers about the safety standards of food served to them. As the food business sector has witnessed rapid expansion across the country, states/UTs undertaking urgent reviews of existing inspection mechanisms and identifying the gaps will help them draw time-bound action plans to bridge those. Application of digital technology and rise of online food aggregation have also driven increase in food business expansion and growth of crowd kitchens. The FSSAI license certifies the safety of food prepared by cloud kitchens or any FBOs, but whether states have enough human resources to carry out regular inspections of the increasing number of cloud kitchens and other food establishments is a key question that must not remain unanswered. The FSSAI has called for an integrated food safety approach through collaboration of all related ministries and stakeholders and regularly convening advisory committee meetings at state and district levels. This implies that ideally every district should have a designated officer and adequate staff support for enforcement of food safety norms. Innovative applications of digital technology can be explored to strengthen inspection even with limited staff strength and inadequate mobility support. One solution that the states can explore is making it mandatory for FBOs to upload videos of food preparation areas without revealing their unique food recipes on a secured FSSAI-approved portal so that designated officers and staff can keep track of maintenance of hygiene and adherence to safety norms. Such a requirement will keep reminding FBOs about the importance of adherence to food safety norms and regulations. This can be useful for the authorities to quickly intervene when any FBO or restaurant is found violating the norms and initiate punitive action. It will also ensure that renewal of license is not a mere official formality but is based on a transparent system of food safety inspection. It can also help food inspectors to focus more on enforcement of food safety norms in temporary markets that come up during festivals and identify FBOs operating without proper license. The temporary markets or street food are an added attraction of tourist destinations, but often hygiene and food safety are ignored by some owners of food stalls, which pose a serious threat to the health of consumers, including tourists. The lack of food hygiene creates a negative image of a place or a tourist destination, which can affect tourist footfall, while safe food can substantially increase the tourism brand value of a popular destination. Food culture and practice being an integral part of tourism, the onus also lies on the tourism department to coordinate with Food Safety officials in putting in place an effective inspection and surveillance mechanism at popular destinations. Evolving technology-based solutions for enforcement of food safety norms is a pragmatic approach to cater to fast-growing food businesses.