Ref. : E&R/Press/’05/jsd-dg/10

CERC Stresses Need for Regulatory Body
on Food Safety and Nutrition

Consumer Education and Research Centre (CERC), Ahmedabad, in a representation made to the Union Ministry of Food Processing Industries, has underlined the need for an effective regulatory authority to monitor the fulfilment of food safety, nutrition, labelling and such other requirements by producers and distributors. These provisions are absent in the present Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA) Act 1954, CERC has added. The Ministry had sought CERC’s views and suggestions on the Food Safety and Standards Bill 2005.

CERC said the PFA Act deals largely with the prevention of adulteration, particularly prosecution for the violation of the Act. It does not deal with the nutritional aspects nor does it provide for compensation to consumers for loss, injury or death because of non-compliance with the Act. Also there is no provision for disgorgement of unjust enrichment or class action suits against producers or distributors of unsafe, substandard or underweight food products and/or false or misleading advertising, or sale of spurious or counterfeit food products.

Civil Remedy

Many industrially developed countries resort to prosecution only if consumer safety is affected and not for any and every violation of the law. CERC said that, fortunately, in the Indian context, the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, amended 1991, provides for class action suits. Such civil remedies, which may require the producer and/or distributor to disgorge millions of rupees, would be a far stricter deterrent than prosecution. Most prosecutions involve milk and dairy products, edible oils, spices and soft drinks and, after a number of years of court trial, 85 per cent of the prosecutions end up in acquittal or discharge.

The Act provides for a deterrent punishment of minimum six months’ imprisonment if the offender is convicted for non-compliance with the Act. If the magistrate does not award him the minimum imprisonment, he has to explain in writing. But, often instead of a written explanation, magistrates prefer to discharge or acquit the accused, defeating the object of the law. Whatever other fine, penalty or shorter imprisonment would have been normally awarded is also lost because the magistrate prefers not to provide an explanation. All concerned, therefore, need a self-introspection of what they have achieved through the Act vis-a-vis consumer health and safety.

The Stockholm Convention identified 12 persistent organic pollutants (POPs) which have since been recommended to be banned. The DDT is one of them. But several of our food standards provide for permissible levels of DDT residues. “We should fix some time limit after which POPs will not be allowed to be used,” CERC said in its representation.

Many industrially advanced countries have also prescribed lower permissible limits for pesticide residues in food for children from the age of six months to 18 years linked with their body weight. India has not yet chosen to formulate stricter standards for the purpose.

Labelling Information

The Justice Venkatachalliah Committee recommended some prescribed standards for nutritional values and labelling information on food products. CERC added that the Bill should provide for compulsory minimum nutritional value and the graded balance for higher nutritional values in three to five years. Cautions and warnings should also be included for consumers such as pregnant women, children, persons suffering from blood pressure, diabetes and heart ailments.

CERC added that registered consumer associations should have a locus standi to file and conduct the proceedings on their own behalf and on behalf of an aggrieved consumer or class of consumers who have suffered loss, injury or death on account of unsafe or substandard food and food products.

Date : 29/03/2005
Place : Ahmedabad

Pritee Shah
Editor
INSIGHT - The Consumer Magazine

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CONSUMER EDUCATION AND RESEARCH CENTRE
“Suraksha Sankool”, Thaltej, Sarkhej-Gandhinagar Highway, Ahmedabad - 380 054 (INDIA)
Phone: 079-27489945-46 Fax: 079-27489947
E-mail: cerc@wilnetonline.net
Web Site: http://www.cercindia.org
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