Every year on June 7, governments across the globe observe World Food Safety Day with lofty slogans, glossy awareness campaigns, seminars, and official statements promising “safe food for all.” In Jammu & Kashmir too, departments issue routine advisories, conduct symbolic inspections, and flood social media with photographs of officials wearing gloves and masks in marketplaces. But the question that truly matters is simple: Has anything changed on the ground?
The answer is a disturbing no.
The ugly truth is that unsafe food continues to flow unchecked into our homes, hotels, schools, hospitals, and markets. Last year’s shocking seizure of more than 11,000 kilograms of allegedly rotten imported meat across Kashmir exposed not merely a food scandal, but the complete collapse of preventive governance. The fact that such huge quantities could enter the Valley, get transported, stored, distributed, and finally sold in markets before authorities acted is proof that the system wakes up only after public outrage erupts.
Food safety in Jammu & Kashmir largely remains reactive, not preventive. Raids happen after media reports. Seizures occur after complaints. Samples are collected after people fall sick. By then, the damage is already done. The ordinary consumer remains vulnerable while officials continue to celebrate “successful drives” that expose their own failure to monitor markets in the first place.
Walk through any major town or rural market and the reality becomes painfully visible. Meat shops operating without proper hygiene. Expired packaged products still on shelves. Open food exposed to dust and flies. Illegal slaughtering practices. Restaurants using questionable cooking oil repeatedly. Poor refrigeration. Unregulated roadside eateries. Yet enforcement remains weak, selective, and inconsistent.
The larger failure lies in accountability. After every seizure, press release, or crackdown, the public rarely gets answers. Who allowed unsafe products to enter markets? Which officials failed in inspections? How many convictions were secured? How many licenses were cancelled permanently? The silence is deafening.
Food safety cannot be reduced to annual symbolism. It is directly linked to public health, rising diseases, child nutrition, and economic dignity. Awareness alone is meaningless unless backed by strict monitoring, scientific testing laboratories, transparent enforcement, and uncompromising punishment for violators.
The tragedy is that citizens have slowly become accustomed to consuming uncertainty. People now inspect meat with suspicion, question milk quality, doubt spices, and fear adulteration in everyday essentials. This erosion of public trust is perhaps the greatest indictment of the system.
On this World Food Safety Day, instead of ceremonial speeches and staged inspections, authorities must answer one uncomfortable question: Why does unsafe food still reach people’s plates despite repeated promises and repeated scandals?
Until that question is honestly answered, World Food Safety Day will remain less a celebration and more an annual reminder of unfinished responsibility.
