Dearth of FSOs creates obstacle in curbing adulteration in food items

| | Ranchi
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Dearth of FSOs creates obstacle in curbing adulteration in food items

Wednesday, 20 March 2019 | PRAGYA PAllAVI | Ranchi

The efforts of the Department of Health and Family Welfare to curb the rising adulteration level in the food items seems mere eyewash as the dearth of Food Safety Officers (FSOs) here in the State is yet to be resolved. The absence of FSOs is a major hindrance in conducting regular checking drives at the confectionery stores, restaurants including several other eatery joints.

At present, there are only two FSOs lending their service at Ranchi and Jamshedpur districts. Ahead of Holi, the department so far has just collected 25 samples during the checking drives from the prominent sweet shops across the districts to check the quality of food on offer.

“A checking drive is being conducted, however, in the absence of highly trained FSOs; the department is not able to cover all the districts. Samples have been received only from Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Palamau and Jamtara districts. The highest number of samples has been collected from Jamshedpur,” said State Food Analyst, Chaturbujh Meena on Tuesday.

At present, the health officers have been given the additional responsibility of sending the collected food samples to the State Drug Testing Laboratory. In the meantime, the deputation of a dedicated FSO at each district, selected a year ago is hanging in the air while a well equipped mobile vehicle (Van) allocated by Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) to the State government facilitating on-the-spot testing of food samples at a nominal cost appears to be missing for quite some time.

“Attempts are being made to depute all the 24 recruited FSOs soon. Within a month or two, each district will have a trained FSO who will regularly conduct the checking drive in collaboration with the respective district administration. 25 days theoretical training of every recruited person had been completed. At the present time, 12 recruited persons have been sent to Jamshedpur while other newly employed 12 FSOs are in Ranchi for getting practical exposure,” Meena added.

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