Give time for law on packaged food, govt to SC

The phased implementation of the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006, aimed at regulating the supply and sale of packaged food products may require more time, the government said in an additional affidavit filed before the bench of Justices A K Mathur and Dalveer Bhandar.    

The Centre's affidavit comes in the backdrop of an ultimatum given by the apex court on July 17 to implement the Act at the earliest, failing which it warned appropriate directions would be issued to the Government for compliance.    

The Union Ministry of Health claimed in the affidavit that the 2006 Act was intended to be implemented in a phased manner as it involved integration of laws linked to packaged food pertaining to two different ministries -- Agriculture and Health.    

According to the Centre it has already constituted the Food Safety & Standards Authority (FSSA) and appointed Dr P I Suvrathan, an expert in food related subjects as chairperson of the body on June 10, 2008.     

The authority would comprise 22 members out of which seven will be ex-officio members representing different departments, while 10 members will represent the different stake holders like industry, NGOS, farmers,food scientist, consumers, retailers and farmers organisation.     

The apex court had passed strong observations on a public interest litigation by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation, an NGO, which had charged the Centre with adopting callous attitude in implementing the Act even after it was passed by Parliament and it received the President's assent on August 23, 2006.