Telangana constitutes SAFE for drug control and food safety

The Telangana government has established TG SAFE by merging Food Safety and Drugs Control departments. Headed by Commissioner Avinash Mohanty, the six-wing authority will oversee licensing, inspections, testing, enforcement and modernisation of food safety and drug control administration across the State

Hyderabad: The State government established Telangana Standards Authority for Food and Essential Drugs (TG SAFE) by merging the Food Safety and Drugs Control departments and posted Avinash Mohanty as its Commissioner. While the order constituting it was issued on August 4, it came into force on August 15.

As per an order issued by Health Department Principal Secretary Dr Christina Z Chongthu, the TGSAFE would comprise six wings – drug administration, food safety, legal and prosecution, laboratory, and administrative.

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The drug administration wing will deal with licensing, inspection, sampling, testing, investigation, and regulatory functions, while food safety will handle licensing, registration, inspection, sampling, testing, and enforcement functions.

Chongthu said the enforcement wing will function in coordination with the statutory wings of drug administration and food safety to augment their functioning through intelligence gathering, risk-based inspections, prosecution support, etc initially attached from the Police Department.

The Commissioner has been tasked to commence the unified operations within CURE Region, prioritizing the area due to the high concentration of food business operators and drug establishments. The police department has been asked to provide adequate police personnel to TG SAFE for enforcement.

Considering the emerging diversity in food businesses and drug establishments, TG SAFE has been directed to constitute a state-level committee on modernization of food safety and drug control administration. Apart from recommendations, the committee has to focus on outcomes and gains arising from the implementation of TG SAFE in the CURE Region