Sunita Narain: Food for thought

DOWN TO EARTH

When Parliament convenes for the monsoon session, the government plans to introduce the Food Safety Bill. It will hope there is mayhem to distract legislators and the bill, which has been crafted to weaken consumer protection in the growing business of food, is passed. Industry says the Food Adulteration Act, set in the era of spurious food, is draconian. They say there the multiplicity of laws on food, which strangulate it. All this is correct.

We are at a critical crossroad in the food and nutrition end-game. Industry is discovering that there is profit is reaching for our stomachs. It is said that farmers will benefit, but the reality is that in this business of manufactured food, the prices are squeezed and invariably, in the name of reliability and quality, the business loses sight of the poor grower of food.

Worse, industry loses sight of the purpose of their business. Food then is not about nutrition or consumer safety, it is about marketing. Indians are beginning to crave for these goodies "" urban Indians spend 20 per cent of their household income on buying processed food and even rural India spends 10 per cent. We now spend more on buying manufactured food, than on buying fruit and even vegetables. We spend more on beverages than on milk.

We are embarking just when the rich world is learning that food as business is bad for health. They are also learning new definitions for hygienic and safe food as bacteria are being replaced by tiny toxins "" from chemical additives, preservatives to contaminants such as pesticides, dioxins, hormones and many things not so nice. They are responding by turning full cycle to wholesome, organic and farmer grown food. What we don't want to eat anymore.

Food legislation then has dual purposes "" to provide conditions for the growth of the food sector and to provide for incentives and regulations so that that sector can produce food that is wholesome and safe.

But the Food Safety and Standards Bill has two clear purposes: first, to deliberately dilute current (already weak) protection that consumers have. Second, to give advantage to large producers of processed food and tighten the screws on small manufacturers, vendors and distributors.

How does it do this? It convolutes and obfuscates the very definition of what constitutes safe or unsafe food. Take just one instance. We know that there are "contaminants" "" substances that are not added deliberately but if present in our food because of various reasons, make it unsafe. This bill does not think so. It introduces the concept of "extraneous matter". This is a contaminant, but it is not unsafe. In other words, the onus will lie on you, the consumer to prove that the pesticide you found in your food is a contaminant and unsafe or that it is extraneous matter, which companies will say is safe for you to consume.

It includes food retailers, hawkers, itinerant vendors and temporary stall-holders at the insistence of big companies. Then, it tightens penalties of small producers with a draconian clause allowing food inspectors to impose fines of Rs 1 lakh on the basis of "reasonable belief".

This bill does not protect consumer interest. It does not protect farmer or small producer interest. In this scenario it is difficult to say who has written this legislation: government or big business? Or are the two the same by now?