FSSAI budget for 2022-23 lower than 2019-20 allocation

Twelve of the 36 states/UTs had fewer food safety officers in 2018-19 compared to 2014-15, shows data

Earlier this week Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) announced that it would soon announce a star rating system for packaged food items. Every packet would need to display a star system, much like the energy efficiency rating, to help make it easier for consumers to understand the calorific value of the product.

The initiative will give a fillip to the government’s Fit India initiative, but it shall also bring more work for the FSSAI. Despite managing more responsibilities, FSSAI has not witnessed a significant change in its budgetary allocation in the last three years.

In the recently announced Budget, the government has budgeted Rs 300 crore for the agency for 2022-23. Although higher than last year’s revised estimate of Rs 286.3 crore, it was lower than the 2019-20 expenditure of Rs 301 crore. The budgeted allocation for 2019-20 was Rs 360 crore.

The spending on FSSAI had increased nearly five times between 2016-17 and 2019-20.

The other problem with the FSSAI has been the conviction rate. In 2020-21, FSSAI had secured a conviction in 58.4 per cent of the civil and criminal cases. While higher than the 56.5 per cent conviction rate it had secured in 2019-20, it was lower than the 84.8 per cent rate achieved in 2017-18 and 62.9 per cent in 2018-19.

FSSAI has witnessed an improvement in bringing more cases to the court in recent years. In 2020-21, FSSAI started the adjudication process in 99 per cent of the cases where it found non-conforming samples; the ratio was 70 per cent in 2018-19.

Data from FSSAI’s latest annual report from 2018-19 shows significant state-wise variation. While larger states like Uttar Pradesh account for the most samples and food safety officers, a deeper analysis shows deeper issues.

A safety officer across the country collected an average of 32 samples per year. While the average sample collected per officer was 18 in Maharashtra, Bihar, with just 14 officers, had an unbelievably high average per officer sample collection of 295 samples throughout the year. Punjab was even higher, with 341 samples collected per officer throughout the year. On the other hand, Delhi had an average of 95 samples per officer. Uttar Pradesh’s average was 34.

Moreover, a comparison from 2014-15 shows that while some states had made strides in hiring more food safety officers on board, others had reduced their count. Twelve of the 36 states and union territories had fewer food safety officers than in 2014-15. Punjab, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat were among the larger states with fewer food safety officers compared to 2014-15.

Not only do these states need to ramp up capacity, but the Centre also needs to expend more resources on the FSSAI, especially as India’s budget for food safety is far lower than developed economies, so its testing capacity.