Following a plea made to the FSSA Authority by various pharmacy associations in Maharashtra in April this year, Dr Roop Narayan Gupta, Professor at the Department of Pharmaceutical sciences and  Technology, BIT, Mesra in Ranchi, representing Bihar IPA unit, has written to the Union health minister to include Bachelor of Pharmacy degree as one of the basic qualifications for Food Safety Officer (FSO) and Food Analyst (FA) under the Food Safety and Standard Rules 2011.

As per the Rules, for the post of FSO, the basic qualification required includes degree in Food Technology or Dairy Technology or Biotechnology or Oil Technology or Agricultural Science or Veterinary Sciences or Bio-Chemistry or Microbiology or Medicine or Master Degree in Chemistry.

Whereas, for FA, the Rules demand a Master degree in any of the subjects selected for FSO or a Master degree in Food and Nutrition.

The letter to the Union health minister says that since the Rules demand degrees in myriad subjects as qualification for the post apart from degree in Food Technology, and a clause in the Rules specifies 'any other equivalent/recognised qualification notified by the Central Government', Degree in Pharmacy may also be considered as basic qualification for FSO and FA posts.

“On going through the nature of jobs as specified for both the posts in the Act, it is noted that B Pharm degree holders are also suitable for these posts because of their specialised skill they acquire from their four years’ pharmacy education. There are so many related subjects in the syllabus of B Pharm course like Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Technology Biochemistry, Microbiology, Pharmaceutical Analysis, Instrumental analysis, Pharmaceutical engineering, Pharmacology, Toxicology, etc.  These subjects cover the total aspects of specified jobs for these two posts. Also, the process of manufacture of food items, their packaging and analysis are more or less similar to drugs”, Dr Gupta claims in the letter.

The pharmacy council of India (PCI) had also made this demand as soon as the Rules came out.