oppn parties Is FSSAI Compromising Its Position By Getting Big Food Companies To Sponsor Its Initiatives?

News Snippets

  • Karnataka HC has ruled that a harassment complaint lodged by a wife after receiving a divorce notice from the husband loses its weight in the eye of the law and quashed the FIR filed by a women against her husband and in-laws
  • 35 people killed in renewed violence in Manipur, 30 of them militants
  • Manipur boils on the eve of Home minister Amit Shah's visit as militants strike, vandalize MLAs home and loot armouries
  • Kerala chief minister P Vijayan says Centre's decision to cut the borrowing limit of the state is 'sadistic' and shows its negative mentality towards the state's development
  • Rahul Gandhi recieves passport, set to travel to the US
  • Centre said that the march-to-Parliament by wrestlers was a 'deliberate provocation'
  • Prime Minister Modi inaugurates the new Parliament building, calls it 'cradle of empowerment'
  • Mamata Banerjee will most likely attend the opposition meet called by Nitish Kumar in Patna
  • With container prices, which were on fire, crashing by 40% YoY, importers and exporters in India heaved a sigh of relief as the burden of high freight costs will reduce
  • In an aim to push lenders to manage risks better after the US financial crisis, the RBI has reviewed bond value norms
  • 14 countries under the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), including India, entered into an agreement to boost supply chains and counter China
  • Malaysia Cup badminton- H S Prannoy wins the title beating Weng Hong Yang of China 21-19,13-21, 21-18
  • Yashasvi Jaiswal replaces Ruturaj gaikwad as stand-by opener for the WTC final
  • IPL final washed out due to rain, rescheduled for today, the reserve day
  • In a shameful incident, Delhi Police manhandled international wrestlers when they sought to march peacefully to the new Parliament building to highlight their greivances, detained some top wrestlers
Fifth IPL title for Chennai as Ravindra Jadeja hits 10 off last two balls to spoil the party for Gujarat Titans
oppn parties
Is FSSAI Compromising Its Position By Getting Big Food Companies To Sponsor Its Initiatives?

By Linus Garg

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.

Nowadays, conflict of interest has become a big issue. Anyone or anything seen as even remotely connected in any capacity to anyone or anything that it promotes or partners immediately raises concerns of conflict of interest. Hence, when it came to light that big food companies and trade organizations that represent the interests of these companies (and often lobby for them to get government policies suitably altered in their favour) were partnering the food regulator Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, FSSAI, in its various initiatives to educate the people about the right food to eat and get the companies to commit to lowering harmful ingredients in packaged food, activists and the media accused it of sleeping with the 'enemy'.

Obviously, and on the face of it, involving food companies in any of its initiatives immediately opens FSSAI to charges of conflict of interest. To cozy up (and take their money) to those whom one is expected to regulate is not a done thing. The initiatives which the FSSAI has taken up, like "Eat Right India", for instance, need a lot of awareness campaigns including media advertising and events. All such things cost lots of money. When such partnerships are struck with food companies, they will foot the bill. Also, such partnerships will mean that FSSAI officials and those of the food companies will remain in constant touch over long periods of time and forge friendships. These friendships can be used to influence the decisions of the food regulator in the future.

Of course, these are all just speculations. The FSSAI can obviously keep its regulatory role at a distance from its role as an educator. Even after taking money from the food companies, it can be strict with them and tell them that it is doing the work (of educating the consumer) that ideally they, or their trade bodies, should have done. It could impress upon them that unless they strictly adhere to the norms of lower harmful ingredients, they would be named and shamed. Instead of alleging that FSSAI is compromising its position, one can say that the regulator is doing the opposite by involving the food companies in the campaigns so that it can influence them in a positive way.