It's not inspection raj but no inspection that is hurting India's food quality

This morning, the very lovely and articulate food processing minister, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, was reported to have said something deeply ill-informed. In an interview with the Economic Times, she said, "Inspector raj has engendered so much fear among packaged food companies that it's stalling overseas investment.."

I would like to point out a few facts that have plagued the food safety processes, making it much easier for companies, including global giants to enter the food processing industry in India. When I spoke with food processing companies as part of India Today's cover story on food safety, no one mentioned of having a food inspector even visit them in years or even decades. If anything, food regulations in India are the most elementary to comply with and considering the fact that India's food safety regulator is barely three to four years old, it's been a "free for all" run until now.

While now there is a Food Safety and Standards Act which lays down specifications for nearly 90 per cent of the products on Indian shelves, these products don't need to be tested before they are introduced in the market. Moreover, state infrastructure is grossly inadequate in terms of capacity and talent to even carry out the tests. Remember the conflicting reports from different labs in the case of Maggi? Take a look at this list to give you a perspective on the number of food safety officers for every state. Numbers vary from one for Puducherry to 519 for Tamil Nadu - the state with the most food safety officers. Uttar Pradesh, for instance, has 287; Maharashtra has 300; Madhya Pradesh, about 184. And these are the better performing states in terms of numbers! Delhi has only 15 food safety officers and just two food analysts. See this.

It's definitely not so much "inspector raj" but lack of a proper mechanism to regulate the food processing sector with clear regulations and accountability that is hurting the consumers more than the industry. Perhaps, now might be a good time for the minister to do a bit of homework on the portfolio she holds. What India needs is stricter processes and regulation more than chest-beating rhetoric on inspector raj.