Date:27/07/2006 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/07/27/stories/2006072703940800.htm

Back LS passes Food Safety Bill

Our Bureau

New Delhi, July 26

The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed by a voice vote the Food Safety and Standards Bill 2005 that seeks to create a regulatory body for the food-processing sector and set standards for manufacture and import of quality food.

Replying to a debate in the Lok Sabha, the Minister of State for Food Processing Industries, Mr Subodh Kant Sahai, said that farmers, fishermen and small vendors have been kept out of the ambit of the Bill. "We are not going to do anything that will impact anybody adversely," Mr Sahai said in response to opposition members' fears that the proposed legislation could affect small vendors and farmers.