The intricate nature of the economic crisis is becoming more and more apparent as its impacts keep spreading to every imaginable aspect of the public’s lives. Among other issues, the public’s concerns as consumers remain at the forefront of these impacts. Until now, their main concern was why fluctuating United States Dollar-Sri Lankan Rupee rates affect retail prices only when the Rupee depreciates, which results in the increase of prices, and not when the Rupee appreciates, which should ideally cause a decline in prices. 

However, now, many have reached a point where the prices of goods are a secondary concern, as the quality of food items is in a seriously questionable state.

Yesterday (19), citing the Public Health Inspectors, the media, including The Daily Morning, reported that certain types of tomato sauce do not contain any tomato at all and that everyday items such as sugar and chillie powder have been contaminated with food colourings and other substances in order to make higher profits. These shocking revelations came in a context where the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) recently raided and instituted actions against traders who resorted to such practices, including large scale dhal importers that coloured discolored dhal. 

With a large number of reports of food items of inferior quality emerging, “why can we not purchase good quality food even at exorbitant prices” is becoming an exceedingly common question, and most of the discussions about the matter identify the CAA as the party that should provide answers to this issue. While acknowledging the yeoman service provided by the CAA at a time where many goods and services providers are ripping the public off, the public opine that much more needs to be done to ensure at least the available, affordable food items are safely consumable. Among other steps, they demand stern legal actions against and the strict monitoring of such businesses, and more involvement by the Government or the authorities in ensuring the quality of food and determining fair prices.

The CAA is one of the most crucial public institutions, especially in the above-mentioned context where its value as a regulator has increased. In fact, many of these food-related issues were exposed by the CAA through the media. However, those raids are limited to the main cities, and it is becoming clearer that the CAA alone cannot wage this much needed war against traders that remain ready to jeopardise the public’s health for money. Therefore, one of the first steps should be strengthening the CAA, especially in terms of human resources and technically updated and more stringent laws. At the same time, it is crucial to understand that eradicating such practices is team work, which is led by the Government with the CAA as the main stakeholder, and is supported by a number of other parties inter alia the Sri Lanka Standards Institute (SLSI) and the Food Commissioner’s Department. The provision of the necessary expertise, facilities including technology, and legal empowerment for these institutions are needs that the Government should consider urgent. In addition to the consumers’ safety and standards related aspects, the health aspect of this issue needs to receive more attention. The health authorities have, through various awareness raising efforts including online discussions, started building closer ties with the public. However, they could also educate the public about identifying low quality food items at the market, and that would help many to refrain from purchasing such food items.

We, as ordinary consumers, demand solutions from the authorities. However, the public’s role and responsibility too should receive more attention. As was mentioned, regardless of the reason, what the authorities could do is limited because they cannot check every food selling establishment in the country. However, consumers have access to almost all such establishments, and therefore, the public should be more proactive in reporting traders that sell or prepare low quality food items. Making available easy complaint registering mechanisms and providing satisfactory responses to those complaints are the authorities’ responsibility. In addition, in a context where social media has become a place where the public discuss issues, taking to social media, especially in the form of responsible citizen journalism, could raise awareness about businesses or products that the public should avoid.

At the end of the day, every citizen is a consumer of food, and supporting the endeavours aimed at ensuring quality food should be everyone’s battle.