New Food Act to address `problem of plenty’

Saigal provided statastics to justify the problem of plenty. India today is the second largest producer of foodgrains after the United States with production crossing six million tons. India is the largest producer of fruits. Only China is ahead of India in the production of vegetables. Yet, India’s share of world trade in this sector is just one per cent. The primary cause is the low incidence of food processing which is just 2 per cent and “post harvest losses for different fruits and vegetables range from 10 to 36 per cent”.

Saigal was speaking in the context of food processing technologies to prevent or atleast reduce wastage, especially radiation processing of food products, which he called an “attractive technology” since it does away with the “cold chain” preservation process that is based on refrigeration.Irradiation of food products not only enhances shelf life without refrigeration but also enhances safety by killing food-borne pathogens and parasites, thus contributing to health care.

The BARC along with Board of Radiation & Isotope Technology have been pioneering food irradiation in India and has a demonstration plant at Vashi for irradiating spices. A plant for irradiating onions and potatoes is now coming up at Lasalgaon near Nasik.

However, Saigal was speaking at crosspurposes. While he did warn the BARC that it was not enough to have technology, but that for the technology to be successful a “sociological package” was essential, Saigal spoke under the assumption that the public at large would accept the BARC’s word that food irradiation is safe in all respects — a tall order, for, though 42 countries have okayed food irradiation, public acceptance has not been so forthcoming as it is trumpeted. In fact, one of the conditions of approval of irradiated foods is that they should be labelled. Food processing industries in US have been agitating for doing away this condition. Also, there is a sustained movement against irradiation of food projects, one of the fears being related to genetic malfunctions in the long term.

According to a very reliable source, Dr R Chidambaram interacted recently with a set of foreign journalists recently at a closed-door session within the BARC premises. One of the projected achievements of research in BARC related to radiation technology. A Canadian scribe asked Chidambaram how he hoped to implement the programme since in Canada itself, despite approval by the government and endorsement of scientists, there were virtually no takers for irradiated food.

Chidambaram reportedly replied: “The West has good un-irradiated food. for them the choice is between good, clean natural food on one side and irradiated food on the other. For Indians, it is a choice between dirty, unhygenic food on one side and clean irradiated food on the other.”

The two day seminar would seek to address the problems of food safety through radiation technology and public acceptance of the same apart from the technology itself.