| CONTRADICTION REGARDING TRADE FEASIBILITY IN FSS ACT - By : Ramesh Kumar Sharma |
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| Posted on Sat 03 May 2008 by admin (375 reads) |
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The organic food production, the first requirement of food safety standards and practices to achieve appropriate level of health protection demands the immediate attention of the Food Safety and Standards Authority regarding how to make it an economically feasible business. Nowadays, when cost plus pricing of even conventional food articles including primary food viz. cereals, pulses, milk etc. is being experienced as a panic price rise by the common men particularly BPL persons in India. This situation presents a serious challenging matter for Authority’s consideration, how to make again the soil of country as fertile and well conserved with dense forests and pasturages as it had been before 1950, to comply with the principle of limitation of safety measures within the range of technical and economic feasibility of food trade, mentioned in section 18(1) d of the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006. The inclusion of organic food under title “food” in section 3(1) j would be necessary to meet out the requirement of “primary food” i.e. an article of food, being a produce of agriculture or horticulture or animal husbandry and dairying or aquaculture in its natural form, mentioned in section 3(1) zk of FSS Act. In due course of time say within five years, the organic nature of food would be needed to be mandatory to provide every Indian his birth right of getting pure organic diet free from artificial fertilizers, insecticides and pesticides. At this point the contradiction regarding the concept of trade feasibility does exist in FSS Act. If the Act is guided with the motive of “ organic food for all to a man” and insecticide and pesticides contents are required to be almost nil in coming future, the economic feasibility of agro- production and food trade would demand a naturally conserved fertile soil and if not, most of the foods produced or processed in the country would be deemed as adulterated after proper amendments in PFA rule 65, which carries no more insertions after 2004. In the current situations too, maintaining insecticide and pesticide residues as per PFA Rule 65 is restrictive of trade. For example milk and milk products can carry on fat basis 0.15 ppm of Aldrin, 0.05 ppm of Chlordane , 1.25 ppm of DDT, 0.05 ppm of Fenitrothion, 0.15 ppm of Heptachlor , 0.20 ppm of Lindane, 0.2 ppm of Chlorfenvinphos ,0.01 ppm of chlorpyriphos, 0.5 ppm of Ethion , 0.10 ppm of Carbendazion, 0.10 ppm of Benomyl, 0.05 ppm of Carbofuran , 0.01 ppm of Cypermethrin, 0.05 PPM of Fenthion , 0.01 ppm of Fenvalerate, 0.01 ppm of Phenthoate , 0.05 ppm of Phorate and 0.05 ppm of Primiphos-Methyl at the maximum. That means the upper limit of all these insecticides and pesticides is 3 ppm for milk and milk products on fat basis. Further the international standards and practices might persuade the Authority to reduce the limits of insecticide and pesticide residues in future. But the present Indian scenario of insecticide and pesticide residues level found in samples of food articles is what B.K.Wadhawa reported in 2000 - DDT in market milk 55 ppm and in human milk 102 ppm, Lindane (BHC) in market milk 61 ppm and in human milk 27 ppm ( Reference : NDRI Publication No10/2003) If any action against a manufacturer making or a vendor selling a food article containing insecticides and pesticides beyond prescribed limit is taken, his/ her humble submission to the Authority would be, ‘ Sir, We procure the raw material from indigenous market. Please guide us whether import is the alternative.’ Of course right, the contradiction regarding economic feasibility of food trade reflects in the definition of ‘ primary food’ in section 3(1)zk of FSS Act that frees farmer from all responsibilities regarding the product grown by him or her indicating a state of Authority’s uncertainty about quality of primary food articles. By: Ramesh Kumar Sharma (Former Quality Control Chemist) Tilam Sangh Rajasthan, Bikaner, INDIA |
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