Tuesday, 25 March 2014 00:00
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AS the days count down for the festive season, stores are already putting products on sale and among these is quality. This is the cue for the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) to step into the streets and protect the public. But how effectively is this being done?
The CAA, during sporadic times in the year, struts out to shops with the aim of preventing hoarding and adulteration of essential items. Their forays in recent months have unearthed shocking instances where thousands of kilos of sprats, onions, flour and other goods have been imported with the intention of mixing with wholesome food and sold at exorbitant prices. The sheer scale of this business shows that powerful people with political connections are likely behind them and with limited powers the CAA clearly cannot be expected to protect the public consistently.
Even more alarmingly, reports indicate that food grown with excessive pesticide and other chemicals could be carcinogenic and people could be in danger of a range of diseases including chronic kidney failure.
Recently Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL) urged the Government to take immediate action to set up an independent Food Authority with qualified personnel dedicated entirely to food control administration to protect the public health by reducing the risk of food borne illness.
Such an authority should work in close liaison with the Ministries of Health and Trade but should be accountable to the Cabinet of Ministers or the Head of State, they proposed – a point that has been disagreed with as political patronisation reaches the highest levels in Sri Lanka. Be that as it may, several other points were also suggested.
The main defect in the food control and food safety system in Sri Lanka is its absolute inability of enforcement although the Food Act itself recognises the imperatives of food safety as identified by the FAO and the WHO. No attempt is made to enforce the mandatory provisions.
Food Control Administration is a specialised field that has to be constantly engaged with food manufacturers, producers, administrators and most importantly the consumers. This is the principal reason why many developed and developing countries have entrusted food control and safety to a separate institution outside the Ministry of Health whose primary task is ‘healthcare delivery’.
Hence, the broad mandate and the structure of the proposed Food Authority should cover the framing of regulations to lay down standards and guidelines in relation to articles of food and specifying an appropriate system of enforcing various standards and lay down mechanisms and guidelines for accreditation of certification bodies engaged in the certification of food safety management system for food businesses.
The authority should provide scientific advice and technical support to the Central Government and provincial administrations in matters of framing the policy and rules in areas which have a direct or indirect bearing of food safety and nutrition. Further, it should collect and collate data regarding food consumption, incidence and prevalence of biological risk, residues and contaminants in food products, identification of emerging risks and introduction of rapid alert system.
Creating an information network across the country so that the public receives rapid, reliable and objective information about food safety and issues of concern should be a responsibility of the authority and it should contribute to the development of international technical standards for food and sanitary standards. A nation is what it eats.
