GANDERBAL: A meeting of the District Level Advisory Committee (DLAC) on Safe Food & Healthy Diets was today held here under the chairmanship of Deputy Commissioner Ganderbal, Shafqat Iqbal.
At the onset of the meeting, Assistant Commissioner Food Safety briefed about the mandate of the committee. She said that the committee has to ensure smooth implementation of FSSA 2006 and compliance with rules and regulations there under, besides promotion of fortified foods in ICDS and Mid-Day Meal and development of nutritional and food safety literacy amongst the citizens by convergence with Poshan Abhiyan and SBM programmes.
She said, the committee also oversees the registration of food business units, surveillance of food items, monitoring of inspections, sampling, enforcement, prosecution and adjudication related to food safety. Furthermore, it monitors the quality, safety of Milk and Milk products, grievances of food sellers as well as consumers, training of the unit holders, food borne diseases etc.
The meeting was informed that about 13000 food business units have been registered so far besides 446 food licenses have been issued for various food establishments in the district.
Regarding inspection of food establishments, the meeting was informed that 203 cases have been launched in the court of Adjudicating Officer Ganderbal (ADC) who has disposed off around 103 prosecutions from the last three years and a fine of more than Rs 18 lakh has been realized from erring food establishments.
The chairman directed the designated officer to carry a special drive for registering all food units in the district. He also stressed on carrying out awareness drives especially in schools and in weekly held Block Diwas with main focus on the agenda of the Act, hygiene, quality and quantity of ingredients besides shelf life of the end product.
He sought cooperation among all concerned departments so that the ultimate aim of providing quality and safe food to the citizens is envisaged.
Regarding ensuring nutritious, healthy and safe food in ICDS and MDM, he urged for issuance of advisories to the Decentralized Panchayat Food Procurement Committees associated with ICDS and MDM with provisions on list of better quality food sellers, flagging the harmful foods without indicating any bias to any brand or seller, fortification of food, special focus on malnutrition areas, etc. so that beneficiaries are benefited in the best possible way.
The meeting was attended by Additional Deputy Commissioner, Farooq Ahmad Baba, CPO, Irfan Ahmad Giri, Assistant Commissioner Food Safety, Shagoofa Jalal, CMO, CAO, CDPO, Food Safety Officers, Food technologists and persons from food agencies.
