Regulators sleep as consumers suffer substandard drugs, food items

It was a petition by the Indian Medical Association against ads issued by Patanjali that has put the company and its co-founders Yoga guru Ramdev and Balkrishna in the soup. Nestle, a multinational corporation, recently got some bad press because a Swiss non-government organization, IBFAN, claimed that the sugar content of MNC’s baby products varies across various nations, being higher in developing countries including India. In Singapore, the authorities have banned sale of the products of Indian spice maker Everest Food, citing the alleged detection of ethylene oxide at higher-than-permissible limits. Hong Kong has acted against the spice brands MDH, alleging that they have a carcinogenic pesticide in several spice mixes.

But what are the authorities responsible for the safety of medicines and food products in our country are doing? Isn’t it their duty to ensure that what Indians eat and drink should be safe?

There is the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Its “vision” is “to protect and promote public health in India, while its “mission” is “to safeguard and enhance the public health by assuring the safety, efficacy and quality of drugs, cosmetics and medical devices.”

Major functions of the CDSCO, as per its website, are: “regulatory control over the import of drugs, approval of new drugs and clinical trials, meetings of Drugs Consultative Committee (DCC) and Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB), approval of certain licenses as Central License Approving Authority is exercised by the CDSCO headquarters.”

Then there is the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) whose functions include:

Framing of regulations to lay down the standards and guidelines in relation to articles of food and specifying appropriate system of enforcing various standards thus notified.

Laying down mechanisms and guidelines for accreditation of certification bodies engaged in certification of food safety management system for food businesses.

Laying down procedure and guidelines for accreditation of laboratories and notification of the accredited laboratories.

Providing scientific advice and technical support to Central government and state governments in the matters of framing the policy and rules in areas which have a direct or indirect bearing of food safety and nutrition.

Collecting and collating data regarding food consumption, incidence and prevalence of biological risk, contaminants in food, residues of various, contaminants in foods products, identification of emerging risks and introduction of rapid alert system.

Creating an information network across the country so that the public, consumers, panchayats, etc., receive rapid, reliable and objective information about food safety and issues of concern.

Providing training programmes for persons who are involved or intend to get involved in food businesses.

Contributing to the development of international technical standards for food, sanitary and phyto-sanitary standards.

Promoting general awareness about food safety and food standards.

Besides the CDSCO and the FSSAI, there is the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) under the Department of Consumer Affairs. The CCPA’s objective, according to an official press release, “is to promote, protect and enforce the rights of consumers as a class.” It is “empowered to conduct investigations into violation of consumer rights and institute complaints/prosecution, order recall of unsafe goods and services, order discontinuation of unfair trade practices and misleading advertisements, impose penalties on manufacturers/endorsers/publishers of misleading advertisements.”

With so extensive mandates, what have the CDSCO, the FSSAI, and the CCPA been doing over the years? This is a question nobody in power is willing to answer.