Overhauling Food Safety Ecosystems in Northeast

Dining culture in urban areas of the northeast region is undergoing rapid transformation, with more people frequently eating out, ordering food from food aggregators or going for quick bites of street food. Balancing a busy work schedule, business engagement or social engagement has many urban dwellers skipping home-based cooking and dining outside. A reality check on food safety and standards in the region reveals a gloomy picture with poor awareness levels among food business owners and consumers. The number of food businesses is growing at a much faster pace than the infrastructure and trained professionals deployed to enforce food safety and standards. The rapid spread of digital technology has driven the growth of online food businesses, with food of choice made available simply by pressing the smartphone button. Many consumers prefer to order by selecting food from an online menu displayed in a restaurant’s app or website. An increase in the number of nuclear families is another factor shaping the transformation in dining culture, with reduced kitchen hours available, particularly when both parents are working. Improving food safety and standards inspection requires innovative approaches to overcome the challenge of the rapid increase in cloud kitchens, food trucks on the streets, restaurants and food aggregators. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has notified 243 primary food testing laboratories and 22 referral laboratories in the country, which include one laboratory each in Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, and Tripura but none in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, and Sikkim. The Mobile Food Testing Laboratory introduced by FSSAI is an innovative approach to overcoming the challenge of inadequate testing laboratories by deploying the mobile laboratories for on-the-spot testing of adulteration in various food commodities. The food safety regulator has sanctioned 70 such “Food Safety on Wheels” for the region, of which 23 are sanctioned for Assam. Efficiency of such mobile laboratories can increase if food safety and standards are maintained at the source – right from production of ingredients, procurement and storage, conditioning, cooking and serving. There is no escape from the hard reality that awareness by itself does not always guarantee maintenance of food safety and standards by some food business owners, particularly when there is little extra cost involved in procurement of quality ingredients, improving food conditioning and storage, food-grade packaging and maintenance of hygiene during cooking and serving. The awareness among consumers on food safety and standards, therefore, plays a greater role, as people would not like to fall sick due to consumption of unhygienic and unsafe food. A large number of roadside food outlets not adhering to even the bare minimum hygiene in food preparation and serving and people consuming such unsafe food in cities and towns in the region is a pointer of lack of awareness and food safety inspection and enforcement both. Under the scheme “Strengthening of Food Testing System in the Country, including provision of Mobile Food Testing Labs,” the FSSAI assists the state governments in strengthening the food testing ecosystem. The amount of Rs 92.63 crore released to the region under this central sector scheme, including Rs 18.57 crore released to Assam for strengthening food testing infrastructure during seven years from 2016 to 2023, is quite less compared to the rapid growth of the food business to cater to the fast transformation in dining culture in the region. Under the PM Kisan SAMPADA Yojana, a private organisation in the region is allowed to invest only 10% of the project cost compared to 20% of the project cost in general areas outside the region, while grants for equipment are for 70% of the cost in the region compared to 50% in other areas. Policymakers undertaking a review of the schemes as to why even such preferential financial assistance has failed to attract private investment to food testing infrastructure will provide a clearer picture of the disincentives and other policy bottlenecks. Empowering consumers with the ‘Food Safety Connect’ mobile application to report food safety violations, register complaints related to food quality and report any unlicensed food businesses they come across is a laudable initiative, but how many consumers are aware of this mobile application in the region is a pertinent question that needs to be answered by the government. The FSSAI has also uploaded on its YouTube channel a dedicated playlist “How to check for adulteration” containing more than 70 short videos for checking adulteration and launched several social media campaigns, including Monday Motivation, Recipe Ravivaar, Know Your Food Labels, Adulteration Awareness, and the Myth Busters series, which aim to empower consumers to make informed choices about food safety and nutrition. Wider publicity about these digital tools will empower consumers to play the role of force multipliers in food safety inspection. The states in the region can play a critical role in spreading the awareness. Food safety ecosystems in the region need a complete overhaul to keep pace with rapid transformation in dining culture.