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R. Desikan

Packaged food may be convenient and tasty. But before picking it up, be sure to check the expiry date.

The other day, I stopped at a well-stocked mini super market in one of the suburbs of Chennai. The shop was well laid-out with attractive shelves packed with a variety of packets. In one shelf, a whole lot of colourfully packaged foods were displayed. Out of curiosity, I picked up one and looked at the expiry date and I was aghast to find that the expiry date was two months ago.

I then went about checking all packets and found that most of them were time-expired. I called the shop owner and asked him if he knew that he should not be selling those time-expired packaged food. The shopkeeper assured me that he would pull out all packages and also to never display such time-expired products.

In India, every State has a controller of metrology — the top official in each State is authorised to check on all products packaged under the Packaged Commodities Act and its rules. In addition, the Corporation or the Municipal Health Inspector is expected to check on the quality of food products. When you investigate to find out how effective the checks are, you will be shown a huge number of checks (the figures of which will be displayed in the room of the chief official concerned). If you ask about the prosecutions made, you will get a reply that many of them have been compounded. The rules for enforcement are friendly to the trader or manufacturers. Even the amended Prevention of the Food Adulteration Act, in my opinion, is not strong enough.

Why is it that there is no enforcement or if there is enforcement the public are not told about it? However well the processed food products are packaged and sold, there is a gradual degradation of the processed food in the course of time. This is a well-established scientific fact. In some foods the flavour will decrease, and in some foods the taste will also undergo a change. Unless the food is totally sterilised and pasteurised, it is bound to deteriorate.

If you look at our eating habits, you would notice that we have started eating enormous quantity of snacks and sweets that are detrimental to our health in the long run. Add to this the callous response of our so-called literate consumers who compound the harm by consuming processed foods that are no longer fit for consumption as per production norms. Since enforcement is lax in this country, packaged foods that have not been sold continue to remain on the shelves though the expiry date is long over. Therefore, we allow time-barred products to be sold. The consumer, not being responsible or even aware, blindly buys these products; tempted by the colourful fresh looking fruits and juices displayed on the carton.

I have been trying to draw the attention of the Government about the need for a consumer products safety commission for the past four years, ever since CONCERT (Centre for Consumer Education, Research, Teaching, Training and Testing) held a workshop on this subject, in co-operation with the Consumer Products Safety Commission of the US.

The recent issue of Consumers Research, published by the Consumers Associations in the US records in detail the power with which the US FDA functions, ordering withdrawals of unsafe foods from every part of the US. We need a very powerful consumer product safety commission, which will have enough powers to withdraw or order withdrawal or stopping of manufacture of all unsafe food products in this country.

The writer is former Chairman, Federation of Consumer Organisations, Tamil Nadu and can be contacted at rdesikan@vsnl.com

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