Strengthen Food Safety

In a welcome exercise, authorities in Srinagar have been carrying out intermittent food safety inspections to ensure compliance with quality standards by various food manufacturing units and commercial establishments. The officials gather samples from industrial areas, hospital canteens, and local markets and send these for analysis. The people would expect that the results of these samples are also placed in the public domain. We urgently need a strict oversight of food production and distribution across the city and also in other parts of the Valley. This is important to enhance consumer confidence and promote higher food safety standards across the region.

Food safety should not be a privilege but a fundamental right of every citizen. However, going by some recent events, it remains one of the most neglected areas of public health in the Valley. The viral social media video about a dead mouse floating in cooking oil at a street vendor's stall near Hazratbal Shrine should shock us all. It is not an isolated incident but a symptom of a deep-rooted crisis. This was followed by reports of unhygienic practices in bakeries, hospitals, and food markets. which has hit the public confidence in much of the food sold on the market, giving rise to calls for immediate and stringent measures to safeguard public health.

This is an alarming situation. As things stand, street vendors, restaurants and even hoteliers operate with little to no oversight. The roadside vendors have been found to reuse oil multiple times, handling food with bare hands, and often storing it in substandard conditions. Worse, the unchecked use of adulterants in food products poses serious health risks, contributing to a rise in gastrointestinal infections, food poisoning, and even cancer. Although recent activism of food safety authorities should be appreciated, they shouldn't act only after a crisis surfaces. The prevailing situation calls for routine, surprise inspections. We need a preventive rather than a reactionary approach to food safety.

True, the crackdown against the violators of the food safety standards is hampered the logistical issues. It remains woefully understaffed. And without sufficient manpower, thorough and regular inspections are impossible. This leaves room for food vendors to operate without fear of accountability. So, the need of the hour is for the government to fill up the vacancies in the department quickly. Food safety is not just a regulatory issue; it is a matter of life and death. We cannot afford to wait for another horrifying unhygienic incident to prompt action.

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