Kohima:
Nagaland ranked 6th among small states in the State Food Safety Index (SFSI) released by the food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) on Monday, ranking above Tripura and Mizoram.
In the index ranking for small states, Nagaland was placed below Goa, Meghalaya, Manipur, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh. To galvanise states to work towards ensuring safe food for citizens, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Mansukh Mandaviya released the 3rd SFSI to measure the performance of states across five parameters of food safety.
The parameters include Human Resources and Institutional Data with 20% weightage, Compliance with 30% weightage, Food Testing, Infrastructure and Surveillance with 20% weightage, Training and Capacity Building with 10% weightage and Consumer Empowerment with 20% weightage.
According to FSSAI, based on the fact that similar States should be compared, the SFSI Index has classified States/ UTs into 3 categories—Large States, Small States and Union Territories to ensure comparability among similar entities.
It said that separate teams of experts for food testing and food & nutrition professionals in addition to FSSAI officials performed the assessment and evaluation of each category.
As per the report, Nagaland scored 38 in total, it is ranked below Arunachal Pradesh which scored 37. The parameter breakout showed that Nagaland scored 5 in Human Resources and Institutional Data, 12 in Compliance, 11 in Food Testing, Infrastructure and Surveillance, 3 in Training and Capacity Building, and 7 in Consumer Empowerment.
This year, among the larger states, Gujarat topped the ranking, followed by Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Among the smaller states, Goa stood first. Among the UTs, Jammu & Kashmir, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, and New Delhi secured the top three positions respectively.