PANAJI
For a State which thrives on tourism, the food and beverage industry is a crucial component of the hospitality sector where Goa often finds itself ambiguously placed in terms of quality, hygiene and even safety standards.
Enforcement gathers pace
In recent times, the Food and Drug Administration has seemingly upped its enforcement, conducting raids and inspections, shutting down outlets, seizing and destroying food stocks and imposing hefty fines on violators across the State. But the scale is, at best, modest.
In the current month, raids were conducted in Tiswadi and Bardez. At least a dozen food outlets have been shut down and several others have been asked to rectify hygiene and safety standards violations within a time frame.
A month earlier, in Bardez, paneer worth Rs 30,000 was seized and destroyed. Also, five unlicensed units were fined Rs 14,000 and three live chicken slaughter shops were shut down.
Raids raise bigger questions
Also in Bambolim and some sporadic locations in other regions of North Goa, 100 kgs of mislabelled tofu was seized, paneer worth another Rs 30,000 was destroyed and two eateries were shut down.
Some other establishments were also levied fines of between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000.
But is all this action enough to ensure that the food we eat when we go out or order at home through food-delivery apps is safe and healthy to consume?
FDA officer Richard Noronha admits that 100 per cent surveillance for food safety across the State is an uphill task with the current levels of workforce and resources available to them.
“But we will continue with these surprise inspections. Hotel and restaurant operators must also voluntarily maintain hygiene and food standards," says Noronha, who is the designated officer for North Goa district under the FSSAI Act for food safety.
FDA stretched by manpower
Goa’s FDA operates with a handful of inspectors and with thousands of hotels, shacks, and restaurants operating to service the demand from locals as well as tens of thousands of tourists visiting throughout the year, the enforcement burden is clearly lopsided and disproportionate.
The raids and action being taken by the FDA do show intent, but the enforcement is only reactive and abysmally inadequate for the scale and size of Goa's ready-to-eat food sector comprising hotels, restaurants, street food outlets and cloud kitchens.
Testing capacity remains limited
FDA sources also pointed out inadequate infrastructure. They use portable TPC meters for testing cooking oil, but the advanced equipment in its labs for detecting adulteration in milk, meat, and processed foods is lacking.
Clearly, Goa FDA's overall capacity to enforce, detect and prosecute food standards violators through foolproof testing appears limited.
Senior FDA officials, who apart from shouldering the responsibility of ensuring standards are not violated under the FSSAI Act also handle pharma drug control responsibilities, agree that the State needs to go in for a significant manpower expansion.
"We definitely need to recruit more inspectors to cover the State’s sprawling food sector," said one senior FDA official, adding that investment in advanced testing equipment for milk, meat, and processed foods would also be ideal.
Call for sustained action
"Only then will we be able to move beyond the sporadic raids we conduct and launch sustained statewide campaigns which will act as a perennial deterrent for operators who go slack on hygiene and safety standards to cut costs," the official said.
He also said that public awareness to educate both operators in the food and beverages industry as well as the consumers on hygiene and quality standards will help.
Maharashtra's FDA Commissioner Tukaram Mundhe has become the latest knight in the country's food safety realm. His aggressive drive has rattled Mumbai's and the rest of Maharashtra's food industry.
Since May, his officers have inspected more than 3,000 establishments. Unsafe food worth Rs 55.72 crore has been seized, licences of 165 establishments suspended and over 500 FIRs were registered.
Maharashtra sets higher bar
In Goa, meanwhile, that kind of a shock-and-awe strategy seems a long way off as this comparison will indicate:
The Maharashtra FDA inspected 3,000-plus establishments in Mumbai and its suburbs and the FDA in Goa managed only a few dozen raids in Margao and Salcete, Anjuna, Bambolim and some other sporadic locations in the tourism belt of Bardez. In Maharashtra, 165 licences were suspended, whereas only a few units were shut in Goa for hygiene lapses.
While Mundhe’s drive has set a benchmark and triggered a huge debate on food safety, Goa’s FDA is struggling to scale up, even if it has been showing the intent.
With tourism central to Goa’s economy, the State must urgently assess whether its FDA is equipped -- in manpower, labs, and enforcement powers -- and pull up its socks to ensure food safety for visitors and residents alike, lest it lose the golden tourism goose.
