Making a very high jump in the Food Safety Index released by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), Odisha has moved to the fourth position at all-India level from the 13th rank recorded in the past two years.
The first State Food Safety Index for the year 2018-19 had been announced on the first-ever World Food Safety Day on June 7, 2019.
Since then, the FSSAI releases the State Food Safety Index based on the overall performance of the States/UTs in the previous financial year to create a positive competitive environment across the States/ UTs to meet the objectives of the Food Safety and Standards Act to provide safe food to general public at large. Odisha has beaten major States like Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Telangana in this year’s index. As per the State Food Safety Index 2021 Odisha got a total score of 60 among the 20 large States and ranked the fourth position. It had got 53.15 scores in the last State Food Safety Index for the year 2019-20.
The State has improved in the Human Resources & Institutional Data and Consumer Empowerment points.
Though Gujarat maintained its number one position intact in the State Food Safety index, its overall score has come down from 78.25 to 72. Even though its total score came down from 71.6 to 70, Kerala secured second rank from fourth position. Tamil Nadu was pushed to third from second and its score came down to 64 this year from 74.9 recorded last year.