Food safety inspections are welcome, but public must know results

Ziraat Times Editorial Board

The Food Safety Department’s latest enforcement drive across Jammu & Kashmir, involving 95 inspections and the collection of 48 food samples, is a welcome reminder that food safety remains an important public health priority. Regular inspections, market surveillance and laboratory testing are essential tools for ensuring that the food reaching consumers is safe, properly labelled and compliant with established standards.

The department also deserves credit for encouraging consumers to remain vigilant by checking labels, verifying expiry dates and reporting suspected adulteration. Food safety is, after all, a shared responsibility between regulators, businesses and consumers.

However, inspections are only the beginning of the process, not its conclusion.

What ultimately matters is what the inspections uncover and what follows thereafter. How many of the collected samples fail laboratory tests? How many businesses are found violating food safety regulations? How many prosecutions are launched, convictions secured and penalties imposed? Are repeat offenders being identified and monitored? Most importantly, are enforcement actions leading to safer food in the marketplace?

These are questions that deserve clear and regular public answers.

Publishing inspection numbers without systematically disclosing their outcomes provides only a partial picture. Transparency is not merely about announcing enforcement drives; it is about demonstrating that regulatory action produces meaningful results. Consumers have a legitimate right to know whether unsafe or misbranded products are being removed from the market and whether violators are being held accountable.

The Food Safety Department has consistently maintained that legal action is initiated wherever laboratory analysis establishes violations. That commitment should now be complemented by periodic public reports detailing the number of samples that fail, the nature of the violations detected, prosecutions launched, penalties imposed and the status of pending cases. Such reporting would strengthen public confidence while reinforcing the credibility of the enforcement process.

Effective regulation is measured not simply by the number of inspections conducted but by the outcomes achieved. Greater transparency would also serve as a stronger deterrent against food adulteration and other violations, sending a clear message that non-compliance carries real consequences.

The department’s inspection drive deserves support. Equally deserving is a robust culture of public accountability, where citizens can see not only that inspections are taking place, but also that they are making a measurable difference to food safety across Jammu & Kashmir.