FOOD SAFETY ISSUE IN NEPAL Raj Kumar Rijal

BACKGROUND "Safe food helps to live long but unsafe food leads to death". Hence Food is essential for nourishment of life. Adulteration of food cheats the consumer and can pose serious risk to health in some cases. Food safety is a scientific discipline describing handling, preparation, and storage of food in ways that prevent food-borne illness. This includes a number of routines that should be followed to avoid potentially severe health hazards. Food can transmit disease from person to person as well as serve as a growth medium for bacteria that can cause food poisoning. In developed countries there are intricate standards for food preparation, whereas in developing countries the main issue is simply the availability of adequate food, which is usually a critical item. Food safety is about the minimization of risk. To protect public health, prevent fraud, avoid food adulteration and facilitate food trade in safe. It is also critical in enabling country to assure the safety and quality of food produced within the country or entering through international trade and to ensure that produced/marketed/imported food conform to national standards. The quality of a product can be evaluated in several dimensions namely, performance, reliability, durability, serviceability, esthetics, features, perceived quality, and conformance to standard. Food articles are meant for consumption by human beings and the quality and safety aspects are of paramount significance. To assure safety of food, to avoid adulteration of food and to make commerce possible and practicable; irrespective of variation in quality a set of uniform guidelines is required and such a set is called food standard. Quality is measured with certain standard. Standards may be of different types, viz., legal (mandatory) standard, company or voluntary standard, industry standard, consumer standard, etc. Of these, mandatory standard is of paramount importance so far as consumers health is concerned. Food adulteration Adulteration is defined as the process by which the quality or the nature of a given substance is reduced through: 1. The addition of a foreign or an inferior substance, and 2. The removal of a vital element Adulteration may be intentional or unintentional. The former is a willful act on the part of adulterator who intended to increase the margin of profit. On the other hand, adulteration may be incidental contamination, which is usually due to ignorance, negligence or lack of proper facilities.

The causes of adulteration may be: Availability of too many products in the market Poor buying practices of consumers. Consumer mentality of bargaining, Consumer psyche. Availability of adulterants.

Thus, food adulteration takes many forms: mixing, substitution, abstraction, concealing the quality sale of decomposed foods and using false labels. The pity is that the so-called modernization has brought with it, the evils of adulteration. According to Food Act, 2023 (1967), a) "Adulterated food" means any food in any of the following conditions: 1. The food which is so rotten, decayed or kept or prepared in a dirty or filthy or poisonous condition that it is injurious to health, 2. The food of which some or all parts have been so made of any diseased or disease carrying animal, bird or injurious vegetation as to render it unfit for consumption by the human being, 3. The food which is likely to be injurious to health because of the fact that any food additive, preservative, inner or outer mixed chemical compound or pesticide level exceeds the prescribed upper limit, b) "sub-standard food" means any food in any of the following conditions: 1. The food the quantity of the main ingredients of which has been so lowered or with which any other food has been so mixed that its original/natural quality is substandard. Types of adulteration: There are three types of adulteration namely: Intentional adulterants: Intentional adulterants are sand, marble chips, stone, mud, chalk powder, water, mineral oil and coal tar dyes. This adulteration cause harmful effects on the body. Metallic contamination: Metallic contaminations include arsenic from pesticides, lead from water, and mercury from effluents of chemical industries, tin from cans etc. Incidental adulterants: Incidental adulterants are pesticide residues, tin from can, droppings of rodents, larvae in foods. Metallic contamination with arsenic lead, mercury can also occur incidentally. Pests such as rodents and insects intrude into the food at high degree and produce filth in the form of excreta, bodily secretions and spoilage through micro organisms.

CURRENT SITUATION According to annual report of Department of Food Technology and Quality Control, 81 cases of food adulteration were found in the last fiscal year. seven firms were involved in adulteration, pasteurized milk was adulterated in seven cases, ghee products in 23 cases, milk products in one, mustard oil in two, vegetable ghee in one and tomato ketchup in two. The report adds that two cases each of substandard fruit products and spices, one of tea, seven of adulterated cereal and pulses, six of instant noodles and plain noodles, four of biscuits, one case of adulteration in bakery products, seven cases of adulteration in processed drinking water, five cases of dalmoth and bhujia, one case each of substandard sweets and papad and two cases of adulterated feed were referred to the quasi-judicial bodies. Trend of Sub-standard Samples
30

Trend of Sub-standard Samples of Milk

100 87.5 72.2

25
25

Sub-Standard Samples(%)

23.7 19.3

90 80
70 60 50

Adultrated sample (%)

68.6

20
15.1 15 12.2

17.3
15.6

50 40
30 20 10

40
23.6

10
5 0 61/62 62/63 63/64 64/65 Fiscal Year 65/66 66/67 67/68

0
61/62 62/63 63/64 64/65 65/66 66/67

Fiscal Year

Trend of Sub-standard Samples of Ghee

90

Trend of Sub-standard Samples of Mustard Oil

80
120

80
Sub-Standard Sample(%)
70

75.9

80 70.8 68.2

61.5

60
50

Sub-Standard Sample(%)

100

95.5 86

80 60
40 20 54.8

40
30

37.3 24.2
29.3

20
10

0
61/62 62/63 63/64 64/65 65/66 66/67

0
61/62 62/63 63/64 64/65 65/66 66/67

Fiscal year

Fiscal year

(Source: DFTQC, 2010)

Trend of Sub-standard Samples of Processed Drinking Water

60 50.9 51.5 47.1 39.3

Sub-Standard Sample(%)

50

40 30
20 10 14.3

6.4

0
61/62 62/63 63/64 64/65 65/66 66/67

Fiscal year

(Source: DFTQC, 2010) CONSEQUENCES OF SITUATION Milk: Most of the market milk is substandard Sweets: Most of the sweets sold are unhygienic Vegetables: Available in the market contain pesticides Rice: Distributed by WFP is not of good quality Meat and meat: Meat and meat products contain VDR Beverages: Imitating products are in the market Mineral water: Mineral water contaminated and contains filth in it Pesticides: Chemical pesticide use is in rise Poisonous mushrooms: Poisonous mushroom claims death of many people in Nepal Street food: Street food consumption increases burden of diseases Due to consumption of unsafe food in the marriage festival, people are getting sick FOOD ADULTERATION, ITS IMPACT ON HEALTH Adulteration of food causes several heath problems in humans. Some of the health hazards include stomach ache, body ache, anemia, abortion, paralysis, and increase in the incidence of tumors, pathological lesions in vital organs, abnormalities of skin and eyes. Hence food adulteration should be given great importance due to its effect in the health significance of the public. The major reason for the intentional addition of these adulterants is for increasing the profit margin on the expense of the health of the public or consumer. These days rarely any food item is spared from the malicious practice of food adulteration. Almost every food-item from milk to fruits, from vegetables to grains is added with adulterants. Some adulterants enter via agricultural steps, as they are not cleaned well. These are visible adulterants like stones, leaves,

soil, sand and dust to name a few. Other adulterants that are intentionally added are invisible with the color or texture. They are generally harmful for the health and most of them lead to serious health problems like cancer. Adulterant reduces the quality of the food and this weakens the health of the one who consumes them, thereby increasing the cost for healthcare. Regular intake of an adulterated food can lead to many health problems. Many toxic chemicals are also used to color sweets. Pulses are adulterated by coloring them so they may look fresh. Similar toxic coloring approaches are used for vegetables and fruits to look as fresh as they can, in order to increase their sale. One of basic food, milk is commonly adulterated with water. The common use of toxic coloring agents as an adulterant for fruits, vegetables, sweets are very dangerous when it comes to health of a person. It can lead to serious health issues like cancer, cardiac problems, insomnia and paralysis and other neurological problems or death as well. As this will only have an economic impact without any health issues.

REGULATORY FRAMEWORK ON FOOD SAFETY IN NEPAL Food Act 1966 and Food Regulation 1970 Consumer protection Act 1998 and Rules 2000 Slaughterhouse and Meat Inspection Act 1998 and Rules 2000 Nepal Standards (Certification mark) Act 1980 and Rules 1983 Standard weights and Measures Act 1968 and Rules 1978 Animal health and livestock service act 1998 and Rules 2000 Breast feeding substances (Sales & Distribution control) Act 1992 and Rules 1994 Iodized Salt (Production, Sale and Distribution) Act Feed Act 1976 Pesticide Regulation Act 1991

The government agency for execution of food legislation (Food Act 1967) is Department of Food Technology and Quality Control- existing food legislation is not adequate to address the present day realities of food safety issues, because: not directed by the risk assessment principles. human resource in food control inadequate. food contaminants analysis facility is poor. CONCLUSIONS Consumer is the largest economic group and central point of all marketing activities. With the rise in the income of people, the quality, the quantity and the sophistication of the consumer goods has also increased. The market is literally overflowing with the new products based on intricate technology. It is very difficult for the consumer to select one food item because of misleading advertisements, improper media emphasis and food adulteration. As a result of these malpractices, the ultimate victim is a consumer, who innocently takes adulterated foods and suffers. Somehow, the Nepalese consumer has become accustomed to live with adulteration. Even educated consumers do not pay attention to the menace of adulteration. Food safety inspection, detection and monitoring should be given a top priority by the government. Increase in the variety of food available has brought with it additional public health

concerns. The complexity of food industry, and the technology used in food production and packaging is increasing. Sources of food contamination are almost as numerous and as varied as the potential contaminants. They include everything from pre-harvest conditions to contamination introduced during processing, packaging, transportation and preparation. The existing food standards have many shortcomings and mandatory standards for many food items have not been established so far. Being a member of WTO, Nepal has to harmonize its existing food standards to that of International one and to develop human resources and other relevant laboratory facility to cope with the ever increasing food adulteration and misbranding. RECOMMENDATIONS 1. Develop a comprehensive system for food control management covering the whole food production chain "from farm to fork". 2. Update the legislative framework for the control and management of food safety and quality based on internationally accepted principles and recommendations and adjusted to meet the particular situation. 3. Strengthen food inspection services through risk-based inspection planning, improvement of inspection procedures and training of food inspectors. 4. Improve hygienic practices among food handlers in small and medium sized food businesses in a sustainable way through strengthened technical support mechanisms to industry. 5. Heighten consumer awareness of food safety and quality issues and to increase consumer participation in the national system of food safety management and control. 6. Develop a system for providing independent scientific advice and risk assessment to food legislator and food control authorities. 7. Strengthen the national capacity for food analysis and improve the efficiency of the food laboratory system, including capacity building among personnel and 8. Food safety must be monitored and ensured, by the private sector, through the implementing the HACCP protocol. 9. Regulations will be reviewed to provide improved guidance for issues such as self assessment quality control (HACCP), traceability, standards for ancillary industries such as ice plants and marketing depots. 10. Improved industry food safety monitoring, quality assurance and the use of third party audits, will reduce the need for lot inspections by QC before the issuance of certificates of fitness for export which remain the responsibility of the Government. 11. The government and the private sector may be supported through the activities of third parties to provide assurance that the products meet the criteria demanded of the products by the market i.e. quality, eco friendly, socially responsible etc. 12. The development of a rapid alert system to respond to food safety emergencies and issues of serious breaches of regulations. 13. The provision of a dedicated quality control staff who have built up the knowledge and skills to successfully implement the requirements of the strategy 14. A Monitoring and Evaluation system that will support the continued improvement of the sector through the provision of accurate information and reports that will promote improved management.