P. A. Chacko
World Food Safety Day is intended to create awareness among consumers, producers, intermediaries like sellers and storage authorities to ensure the safety of food items needed for consumption. Above all, the civil authorities responsible to implement food safety rules and regulations are morally and legally responsible in this field.
The theme for 2025 is: Food Safety: Science in Action. This is meant to highlight the importance of scientific knowledge in ensuring food safety.
The World Health Organization points out some dreadful facts:
200 diseases, ranging from diarrhoea to cancer are caused by unsafe food. On average, 1.6 million people get sick due to unsafe food.
Medical industries and medical practitioners are minting money by cashing in on people who fall victims of unsafe food. Look at the exposed food in markets. Flies, vermins, dust and smoke infect such exposed food and sweet products.
From our observation we find that people in rural areas suffer from diarrhoea, dysentery, typhoid and other intestinal complications due to consuming such unhygenic food items. I have seen rodents having a free run among food items kept exposed in grocery shops.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, needs to do its homework properly to ensure food safety. Its functionaries like licensing authorities and inspection agents should not become agents of corruption and laziness. They should be the first culprits when food safety and public health go down the drain.
Social activists, educational institutions, health work agencies, hospitals etc. should shoulder responsibility in creating public awareness and in activating law enforcing agencies for ensuring safety in foods and beverages.
Live and let live, guys!