Food regulation laws to be amended
HEALTH Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has proposed amendments to the laws that regulate food health and safety to protect people living in rural communities.food health inspection was the responsibility of the Department of Health, but in 1996 the Foodstuff Cosmetic and Disinfectant Act was amended which saw the duties being taken from the national health department to metros and local municipalities.
This included audit and support health services related to the control of imported foodstuffs, municipal health services in metros and district municipalities related to law enforcement, monitoring, information, education and communication. Motsoaledi believes that the lack of enforcement contributed to bacteria outbreak, adding that food manufacturers were failing to comply with the law. He said only metros had tried to employ equipped health inspectors, but poor rural municipalities have failed due to lack of resources and funds. “They prioritise tangible service delivery such as water, roads and houses, they do not consider health inspection as a priority. “We have realised that something was not working and we previously tried to capacitate them (municipalities) with necessary skills through workshops, but nothing much has been done as far as health inspection is concerned,” Motsoaledi told the Sunday Tribune.
“As the department, we are limited to act on this because constitutionally, we are not allowed to do so. The budget also does not allow us to help the municipalities to employ qualified health inspectors,” said Motsoaledi.
He had proposed the amendment of the laws to take back the duties of the inspection to the Department of Health.
“To enable us to plan and react effectively. Such responsibilities should be for the national department. We applied the same principle on the sea and airport health services whose duties were given to the provincial government. It yielded positive results,” he added.
Motsoaledi also criticised the multi-international food producer for failing to take responsibility for their actions. “Tiger brands is huge, they have experts in food processing with all required research facilities. They should have noted that something was not healthy in their product. The government does not produce food, it only sets legislation. They are the ones who have experts in the whole value chain of food production,” said Motsoaledi
Constitutional court expert Shadrack Gutto said there were other options available to shift the responsibility. He said cabinet can resolve on this matter by looking at schedule 4 and 5 of the constitution which explains the location of primary duties to the national, provincial and local government.