Food Safety Act and how it affects your business .
efarm Venky
Food Safety Act and how it affects your business .
Any one owning a food related business – whether roadside chatwallahs to hep star hotels; whether a packaged food vendor or health supplement provider – now come under the purview of the new Food safety Act . The new act replaes a mixed bag of various prior laws(separate ones for meat, vegetables, packaged food etc., and replaces them with a single set of rules and compliance laws .
So what’s different? Another set of food inspectors who drops by and collects his moolah ?The act says that now the food safety inspectors would not only focus on the food serving establishment , but also all intermediate stakeholders in the entire supply chain of the product - production, processing, distribution, and marketing. Making them auditable and responsible . Penalties for non compliance could range 10 lakhs to life imprisonment based on severity !!
Even lot of professionally run food units, who may otherwise spare no expense on their store fronts or marketing, but when it comes to their kitchen supplies often compromise on price over quality. All professionalism goes for a toss, as they look for just a ‘cheap quote’ rather than a ‘reliable and safe supplier/partner’. With food adulteration now even stretching into fresh produce – use of chemicals and banned poisons in ripening and shelf life storage extensions puts the risk even larger.
If you run a food unit – ask yourself - Have you visited your supplier’s premises ? Are any hazardous chemicals used by your supplier which may affect your customers ? Are the supplier’s trained in modern quality norms and hygiene ? Is saving a few rupees worth the embarrassment of prosecution owing to lack of food safety ?
Do check and implement adequate vendor selection norms – otherwise your ‘ cheap vendor’ may lead you to long term ‘cheap accommodation’ – in Jail !! ;-)
Some links for further reading :
· http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Selling-adulterated-food--punishable-from-today/827472/
· http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/article2324120.ece