GoM approves Integrated Food Law for introduction in Parliament

New Delhi, May 15 (UNI) The Group of Ministers (GoM) today approved the draft of the Integrated Food Law, that merges or repeals the 16 separate laws currently governing the country's food sector, to be introduced in Parliament on May 17 or 18.

The law proposes to empower a single authority to implement the integrated law and will supercede separate laws falling under the purview of nine Ministries and Departments, said Food Processing Industries Minister Sabodh Kant Sahay here tonight.

The GoM, chaired by Agriculture and Food Minister Sharad Pawar was attended by Health Minister Dr A Ramadoss, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath and Mr Sahay who will introduce the Bill in Parliament.

Mr Sahay said The Central Regulatory Authority would be and independent entity with 25 members and it would be the first step towards providing quality and standard to the food sector.

The law was likely to be placed under the Food Processing Ministry for implementation but Mr Sahay told mediapersons that ''it is up to the Prime Minister to decide which Ministry should handle the implementation of this law.'' The draft of the proposed law will not be sent to the Law Ministry and the Cabinet now, he added.

Earlier, the Bill was introduced in the first leg of the current Budget session but later following some objections by the opposition members, it was referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture which gave 26 recommendations for inclusion in the final Bill of the law.

Mr Sahay said as many as 19 recommendations of the Committee had been accepted by the GoM as such and rest of them with some amendments, clearing the Bill for introduction in the Parliament.

He hoped that the Bill would be enacted in the current session of Parliament.

The acceptance of Committee recommendations led to the exclusion of the farmers and fishermen from the purview of the proposed food law, enrolling of the food vendors with specifications for standards for food they sell and making licences mandatory for middle and large-scale eateries and restaurants.

Drinking water as such, barring the packaged bottled water, has also been exempted from the purview of the proposed law. And, the expiry date on a product would be taken into consideration while doing away with ambiguous clause of "likely to be expired''.

The fine for adulterated food had been fixed between Rs 25,000 to Rs five lakh, said Mr Sahay adding that the law would be consumer-oriented as per the changed perception of the people about the food they consume.

Among the issues, he said, the integrated law would address the issue of food safety in totality.

The proposed law would emphasise that quality of food should be linked to the quality perception about processed foods, which in turn is linked to branding and certification standards which should be harmonising the national standards with CODEX.

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