Kathmandu, July 30

Due to lack of human resources, the Department of Food Technology and Quality Control (DoFTQC) is facing difficulties in taking forth its activities effectively.

Speaking at a press meet organised here today to publish the annual progress report of the DoFTQC, Matina Joshi Vaidya, director general of the department, said that the department is facing problems in conducting its daily activities.

“Despite our efforts, monitoring and taking action against the perpetrators have been affected slightly. We are still hiring staffers at our divisional offices,” she replied to the queries about weak inspection activities of the department.

As per the annual report of the department, a total of 148 complaints on substandard food had been lodged at the DoFTQC in the last fiscal year. Of them, the department has taken action against the wrongdoers in only 11 cases.

“Based on the nature of the complaints, DoFTQC has taken action against 11 perpetrators.

We have our own framework for taking action,” she said, adding, “Complaints against the traders are being divided into three categories — green, yellow and red. And we have taken action against the 11 cases that fell under the red category.”

She further said that inspection was being conducted on sampling basis, so the data did not represent all the areas.

Pointing to the lack of skilled manpower in the market, she further said the department has to develop skilled manpower along with the infrastructure and finances in the food inspection sector. “We are currently providing technical training to our staffers along with recruiting new staff. Just in the last fiscal year, we recruited 103 new staffers,” she said, “This will surely help the department to take forth its activities effectively.”

Moreover, department has also conducted skill training for the stakeholders. As per the annual progress report for fiscal 2018-19, DoFTQC conducted training on food technology and nutrition that was participated by altogether 1,020 people.

Similarly, food safety and quality training was provided to a total of 4,280 participants, including consumers, industrialists and academic personal.

In order to ensure food safety in the country, DoFTQC also organised food safety awareness programmes in the last fiscal. Likewise, a total of 722 hotels across the country received safety rating from DoFTQC in the review period, of which, 15 received green sticker with three stars, 90 hotels and restaurants received green sticker with two stars, while 276 hotels received green sticker with one star. Meanwhile, 341 hotels received yellow sticker without any star.