Irrational Food Inspection in India

Adulteration of food by substances dangerous to life is a fact in many parts of the world including India. Consumers have to be careful in ensuring that food they procure from markets is safe for their health and their families. Food safety inspectors exist in health departments of all countries to check food products and punish unscrupulous food sellers. In India however there is a unique dimension to this inspection that hovers between the irrational and sordid corruption that plays with the health and well being of citizens. Let us first explain what the irrational element is.

On October 15 there was a report in the times of India, the prominent daily newspapers that in a village in Chomu district of India, food inspectors from the health department had unearthed a mawa (a concentrated milk product used in many Indian sweet dishes) unit that was preparing it from milk powder and edible vegetable oil products instead of just pure milk (see here). They destroyed 120 kg of Mawa from this unit. Mawa is an expensive product and manufacturers have come up with various alternative recipes to bring down the costs. It is used in large quantities before festivals. In earlier years there have been reports of similar action by food inspectors when they seized and destroyed mawa prepared using potatoes or refined wheat flour.  The irrational and laughable thing about such exercises is that what is seized is not an unhealthy product but just a cheaper substitute. In most countries of the world this practice may have been lauded as an innovative and enterprising practice not an illegal one. While food inspectors destroy such good food in thousands of tonnes all over India, many lives, many a child dying of hunger and malnutrition could have been saved by its consumption.

The manufacturers on the other hand should ensure their own safety by labeling their product boldly, as mawa substitute, prepared using potatoes, vegetable oil or whatever. They can also put bold signs about it outside their production units and photograph it with evidence of dates (can be done by placing dated page of newspaper in photo) Thus they could then approach the courts for illegal harassment by food inspectors and compensation based on this evidence. I had heard a story during my childhood when a famous national ice cream manufacturer was similarly charged for using cellulose used in blotting paper in ice creams. They won the case in court when it was proved that the cellulose used was not harmful to health and in fact may even help some by adding roughage in their food. 

While the irrationality of this food inspection is explained, what needs to be explained is the sordid corruption behind it. It is similar to corruption in police departments where police have at times caught couples sitting in parks which is perfectly legal while letting off even rapists at times through secret bribes. The former gives the impression that the police are active in protecting women while the latter brings them illegal gratification and increased rape of women of India by criminals. Similar may be the case with food inspectors where they let off the real criminals polluting food with dangerous substances in return for bribes while making a show of action by harassing legal producers. Cases of serious even fatal food poisoning are heard from time to time in India including in a train yesterday run by the Indian Railways.

It is a tragic fact of life that in many a corrupt developing country from Africa to Asia, government officials paid by public, use their positions for illegal enrichment rather than serving people. Barack Obama on a visit to Kenya had remarked – Corruption destroys every aspect of social and economic life of a nation. The suffering of billions on earth increases as evil born of greed flourishes.