Food fines: Food act to be presented in K-P assembly

Health department to establish authority for monitoring edible products in the province.

PESHAWAR:

The Food Safety Authority Act 2012, which aims to improve the quality of food items in the province, was signed by the chief minister on Sunday.

The act has been vetted by the Law, Parliamentary Affairs & Human Rights Department and will be presented in the provincial assembly. Once the law has been made, the health department will issue a notification to establish a Food Safety Authority (FSA).

The FSA will have 14 members from various departments and will be led by an additional chief secretary.

Section 8 of the act says, “The authority will regulate and monitor food businesses in order to ensure provision of safe food. It will formulate standards and procedures in relation to any aspect of the food business.”

There will be specific guidelines for the setup and accreditation of food laboratories, licencing and prohibition. It will provide scientific advice and technical support to the government and create a database and information system on the network of food operators.



The act specifies the FSA will appoint a food safety officer responsible to take food samples from any place selling edible products. The officer would have the remit to examine any package which is believed to contain any food in contravention of the act.

The authority will appoint public analysts and anyone can write an application to the safety officer asking him to purchase a sample of food from an operator and get it analysed. The person making an application will bear the expenses of the sample. In case of positive results, the expenses will be reimbursed to the complainant and paid for by the accused.

“With the establishment of the Food Safety Authority, the quality of food available to us will be improved and diseases spread due to adulterated food will decrease,” said Health Sectors Reforms Unit (HSRU) Deputy Director Dr Siraj Mohammad.

He added that food analysts and safety officers on district levels will streamline food available in hotels, markets and nutritional products such as infant formula.

Under the offences and penalties section, any person who sells food which is not in compliance with the act, or manufactures or keeps any food under unhygienic conditions or manufactures for sale, stores, sells, distributes, imports or exports any substandard products would be liable to a fine not less than Rs25,000 and not more than Rs1 million. The alternate would be imprisonment for three months.

There are also severe fines if there is any misrepresentation regarding the value or substance of food or any false claim regarding the manufacturer. The fine would be a minimum of Rs0.1 million and a maximum of Rs1 million.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 14^th, 2013.