“Guidelines whether coming from FSSAI or ICMR won’t have any impact on the health safety of people till the time they are educated about the impacts of the guidelines.”
Last month health experts advised people to avoid use of packaged and processed foods across the country but Jammu & Kashmir is perhaps the only region in the country where the health experts have not taken a cue from recent guidelines of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) over the use of packed and processed foods. While the health experts of Jammu & Kashmir should have taken lead over their contemporaries of the other parts of the country in advising people to stop using packaged and processed foods as per FSSAI guidelines, they have not unfortunately taken a cue even from FSSAI guidelines and viewed them seriously like other states and union territories of the country in advising the Government to implement FSSAI guidelines. Even Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) the apex health research body of the country has in its latest statement said that since labels on packaged foods can be misleading, the consumers are advised to read the information carefully to make informed and healthy choices for the purposes of their own health safety. Guidelines whether coming from FSSAI or ICMR won’t have any impact on the health safety of people till the time they are educated about the impacts of the guidelines. Looking at the prevailing food safety scenario in Jammu & Kashmir it can be said that in view of the unprecedented surge in tourist footfall during last two years the tourism department of the Jammu & Kashmir Government too was obliged to view seriously the FSSAI guidelines on use of packaged and processed foods and recommend its forceful implementation besides educating people about them for the safety of both the tourists and as well as the local populations.
“Not only for the delay in implementing the FSSAI guidelines on use of packed and processed foods but also for the negligence in taking the samples of the packaged and processed foods for the tests for the purposes of checking their contents both the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs (FCA&CA) department and as well as the J&K Food Safety Organisation owe huge explanations to people across Jammu & Kashmir Government.”
Forget about the seriousness of the tourism department, even the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs (FCA&CA) department and J&K Food Safety Organisation whose domain is the food safety of people have not bothered to take a serious view of FSSAI guidelines on packaged and processed foods and implement them forcefully besides awaring people for the safety of both the tourists and as well as the local populations in Jammu & Kashmir. Interestingly the forceful implementation of FSSAI guidelines on use of packaged and processed food is otherwise also forced by the increasing vulnerability of children to packaged and processed foods in Jammu & Kashmir like other parts of the country. Not only for the delay in implementing the FSSAI guidelines on use of packed and processed foods but also for the negligence in taking the samples of the packaged and processed foods for the tests for the purposes of checking their contents both the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs (FCA&CA) department and as well as the J&K Food Safety Organisation owe huge explanations to people across Jammu & Kashmir Government.
