Food Sampling & Testing Minimal In Delhi, Needs To Be Ramped Up: High Court

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday said that the food sampling and testing done in the national capital is minimal and the same needs to be ramped up.

A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Arora made the remark while dealing with a suo motu case initiated in 2010.

The case was initiated based on a news report regarding the use of pesticides for growing vegetables causing serious neurological problems, kidney damage and other diseases.

Along with the suo motu case, another PIL filed by one Sharad Tiwari was also heard today.

During the hearing, the court orally told FSSAI's counsel: “What food products are we eating we don't know. Are you living in ivory towers of what?”

The court told the counsel that FSSAI is an apex body and must take responsibility and exercise its supervisory power to ensure more testing of food products.

“Are you doing actual surveillance?…. Are you doing testing on your own or are you dependent on the people applying for testing?,” the court asked the counsel.

The counsel responded that testing of food products is done by concerned food safety commissioners of the State.

To this, the ACJ remarked orally: “You must be laying some guidelines. Do you prescribe some rate of sample? How much sampling should take place? Have you stated that for example in Delhi, you'll do random sampling of let's say 50,000 samples a month? How many samples have you prescribed for a month?”

The court further remarked that the present testing rate of 25 samples per month in Delhi is very low.

“Look at the population of Delhi. How much food consumption happens on a daily basis? How many FSOs do you have in Delhi?,” the court said

The court then ordered the Commissioner of Food and Supplies of Delhi Government to file a personal affidavit indicating the extent of food product testing in Delhi, the number of food inspectors and inspecting teams and the budget for sampling.

The court also directed the officer to join the proceedings through virtual mode on August 07, the next date of the hearing.

In February, the bench had asked FSSAI to prepare a plan for sampling and testing of all food products in the national capital.

Title: Court on its own motion v. Union of India & Ors.