Food Safety and Standards: The Maggi Episode

Abstract

Food is an essential part of the rich cultural heritage of India. Food is not merely what we eat to live, but it is an identity to who we are. In spite of the importance "food" holds in our everyday lives, yet it forms to be a part of one of the most neglected area in terms of quality and standards. As in the words of Micheal Pollan who has rightly pointed... "We should not eat anything our great grandmother wouldn't recognise as food. There are many great food like items in the market our ancestors wouldn't even recognise as food and thus we ought to stay away from these. A similar food item we found all these years in our supermarkets is known as "Maggi", which stands to be a classic example of this. Maggi, which became a household item, as common as that of wheat, rice or dal, came into limelight due to its safety and standards under the current Food law regime. Its popularity and level of consumption across the country was mind boggling. However, its targeted audience being mostly children was the cause of concern. The turmoil regarding the safety of this product lead to a nationwide protest. In light of the Maggi episode, this research paper tries to highlight how the Food safety and standards of consumable items available in market are not under proper scanner. The legal set up with the new FSSA, 2006 has changed the scenario of maintaining food standards but the assessments are still not up to mark. We try to look into issues such as - (i) Who shall be held responsible for such a stack in the system? Is the company liable, who fails to comply with the guidelines laid down in the Act and who performs unfair trade practices? Or are the laboratories liable, who conduct tests over consumable items and fail to construe any lacunae in the item under scanner? Or the administrators who neglects to ensure food safety and place checks at various levels do their job carelessly; (ii) Can the principle of absolute liability be extended to food businesses being operated at not just big scale but also to small scale? (iii) What are the international standards that we need to abide by and how far are they being complied with? (iv) What practical steps can be taken in order to ensure that episodes like "Maggi" do not repeat in future? (v) To what extent are brand ambassadors of such products liable for promoting them as they are harmful for human consumption? Lastly the research tries to make some conclusions on the basis of findings with special reference to the famous Maggi episode.