FCI forms 8 teams to check rice quality

With complaints about “poor” quality of rice received from Punjab by the other rice consuming states trickling in, the Food Corporation of India has decided set up eight teams to randomly check the rakes of rice being dispatched from the state.

In the past month, three states have reported problems in the quality of rice dispatched from different parts of Punjab to Nagaland, Karnataka and Arunachal Pradesh. The rice, when checked for quality specifications in these states, was reportedly found to have either higher than specified broken grains; higher moisture content; having less than specified fortified rice kernels; or having first level of pest infestation. The rice that was sent to Arunachal Pradesh and Karnataka was found to be “unfit for human consumption” when it was checked, before being used for public distribution.

The Punjab regional office of the FCI had maintained that the rice quality might have been affected during transportation and its handling, or while it was stored in other states. They have all along maintained that the quality of rice, before it was dispatched, fulfilled all parameters.

In an order issued by the food agency now, as many as eight teams, comprising three officers each, have been formed. The teams will check the quality of rice being sent from the FCI’s Punjab region.

The teams have been asked to take samples and check the quality of rice being dispatched from Budhlada, Kotkapura, Ferozepur, Kapurthala, Mullanpur (Ludhiana), Moga, Nabha and Sangrur. The teams will also certify the rice before it is dispatched.

Interestingly, the rice stored in Punjab — some 113 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) — was always checked for its quality by local teams from each division of the FCI, before it was dispatched. The new teams, drawing officers mostly from the quality control department of the FCI, will do a double check on the grains stored here. The transportation of grains from the state to other states will be done only after the clearance is given by the quality control division.

It may be mentioned that after the rice dispatched from Sangrur, Sunam, Jalandhar and Nabha was found to be lacking in quality, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution had asked the FCI to check the quality of all grains stored in the above-mentioned centres.