It’s Time To Regulate Food Safety
My standard of hygiene may differ from his standard, their standard may differ from ours etc etc. This was the almost jocular comment given by one of the senior member of the Organizing Committee for the Commonwealth Games when complaints were raised by several of the foreign delegations on the ‘dirty and unhygienic’ condition of the games village. The excuse that the particular member was attempting to make in order to counter criticisms of the shoddy preparation was that as per Indian standard, what was termed unhygienic was not so and therefore there was nothing wrong with the so called dirty and unhygienic condition as claimed by the foreigners. However knowing fully well that his argument was a specious one, the member went on to assure that the organizers will maintain the hygiene on par with what the foreign delegates expect. For us in the subcontinent the argument given by the Indian official is actually not very surprising given that we are used to poor level of cleanliness and hygiene whether at home, our work places or in our day to day life. But this is not the way our hygiene should be. We have to improve our standard in all walks of life whether it is quality in construction, human resource, education, security or hygiene. This substandard that we are used to cannot be acceptable to the outside world. If India is to compete globally, it must adapt and improve on many things so that the country and its people are not left behind in the race for excellence. We need to learn a lesson from the recent commonwealth games fiasco.
Closer home in Nagaland, the recent raid conducted by the authorities on our food making units, restaurants and bakeries was a welcome step although it was long overdue. But despite the filth exposed, the businesses continue as though nothing has happened. The apathy all round could be because regulating food safety is something new in our local context. In fact this has never happened! Therefore the authorities are unaware about what to do or the action to be taken. In fact we are also unaware or simply ignorant about cleanliness and hygiene. As consumers, we need to demand certain standard of quality from our service provider/s. The latest raid on the eatery joints and the disclosure of the poor hygiene should be a wake up call for those who run these services. The problem is also that such services have remained almost unregulated so much so that quality has been compromised all these years. It is extremely distressing to know that some of the eateries/bakeries are doing huge business some for almost 30-40 years but unregulated. And to discover that their kitchens are substandard is condemnable. The owners of these places should be immediately ordered to invest atleast some portion of their huge earnings on improving all aspect of food preparation so that a high standard of cleanliness, health and hygiene is maintained. For many years now these people have made their huge profits and rightly so, however it is time for them to pay up and make the necessary improvement. The government should strictly regulate this sector and ensure that the years of ignorance, substandard service is a thing of the past.
