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By:

Amol Deshmukh and Vaibhav Mathkari

5 March 2025 at 11:13:08 pm

Can Maharashtra’s Food Industry Take Civic Responsibility?

The food industry can turn everyday business practices into everyday civic action. AI generated image We all love eating out. Maharashtra’s food culture is inseparable from its identity. From a small vada pav stall to a five-star hotel, and from a family restaurant to a large wedding caterer, food businesses are part of everyday life. What responsibility does a food business have towards the citizen? Is serving tasty food enough? Or should restaurants also minimise food and plastic waste,...

Can Maharashtra’s Food Industry Take Civic Responsibility?

The food industry can turn everyday business practices into everyday civic action. AI generated image We all love eating out. Maharashtra’s food culture is inseparable from its identity. From a small vada pav stall to a five-star hotel, and from a family restaurant to a large wedding caterer, food businesses are part of everyday life. What responsibility does a food business have towards the citizen? Is serving tasty food enough? Or should restaurants also minimise food and plastic waste, maintain clean kitchens, use safe ingredients, manage waste responsibly and avoid traffic problems outside their premises? Several countries are already asking these questions. Japan has made reducing food loss a national priority, bringing businesses, government agencies and citizens together to prevent usable food from becoming waste. France has taken steps to reduce single-use plastics, including plastic drinking-water bottles in collective catering. Singapore requires large commercial premises to segregate and manage food waste. The European Union is also working to reduce unnecessary single-use plastics and promote circular packaging. Maharashtra need not copy them. But they offer one lesson: civic responsibility cannot rest with the government alone. The food industry has a major role to play. What if Maharashtra took up an 11-point challenge? Imagine major hotels, restaurants, caterers and food establishments voluntarily adopting a civic charter. First, reduce food waste. Large kitchens should track daily waste and aim to cut it by 25 per cent and then 50 per cent. Food safe for consumption should, wherever possible and legally appropriate, be redirected for human consumption. The rest should go for composting, biogas or other scientific treatment. Second, reduce unnecessary plastic water bottles. If safe drinking water is available, why automatically give every customer a plastic bottle? Maharashtra can develop a model using glass, steel and refill systems. Third, rethink packaging. Food delivery has created mountains of packaging. Do we really need all this plastic? Reusable, recyclable and genuinely sustainable alternatives should be preferred. Fourth, end open dumping of food waste. Restaurants should not send organic waste to roadside dumping points. Segregation and treatment should be part of commercial food-waste management. Fifth, make healthy choices available. Menus should include lower-salt, lower-sugar and nutritionally balanced options. This is about choice, not telling people what to eat. Sixth, use cooking oil responsibly. Restaurants should record its use and replacement and ensure used oil goes through authorised channels. Food safety and environmental responsibility should go together. Seventh, make kitchen hygiene a culture, not a certificate. The World Health Organization’s principles are simple: keep clean; separate raw and cooked food; cook properly; maintain safe temperatures; and use safe water and raw materials. The challenge is making them daily habits. Eighth, give consumers a voice. A QR code could allow customers to report serious food-safety concerns through a system that records and follows up complaints. Ninth, use technology intelligently. Artificial intelligence, sensors and digital systems can monitor temperature, hygiene schedules, waste segregation and other safety parameters. Tenth, think beyond the kitchen. If customers block footpaths, roads or emergency entrances, restaurants should help manage the situation. A successful restaurant should not become a problem for its neighbourhood. Finally, the Safe Food Oath. Can Maharashtra’s food industry voluntarily pledge that no known unsafe substance will knowingly be used in food? The proposed oath could state: “We pledge that we shall not knowingly use any carcinogenic, teratogenic, hepatotoxic, nephrotoxic or allergenic substance as a colouring agent, flavour or taste enhancer, adulterant, sweetener, or preservative or for any other food-processing purpose. We shall use only legally permitted and scientifically evaluated ingredients and additives and maintain transparency and accountability in the preparation and serving of food.” This is not a call to ban every chemical or synthetic food additive. Many are legally permitted after safety evaluation. The point is simple: unsafe substances should never be shortcuts for making food cheaper, brighter, sweeter or more attractive. Civic Food Industry Award Maharashtra could take the idea further by inviting the food and hospitality industry to adopt an 11-point Civic Food Industry Charter. Those meeting the standards could be independently assessed and recognised through a Maharashtra Civic Food Industry Award. The award would ask not only, “How good is your food?” But also, how much food did you save? How much plastic did you eliminate? How safely do you manage your kitchen? What happens to your food waste? Are your ingredients safe? Do you respect the neighbourhood? That would give “hospitality” a deeper meaning. Maharashtra has the institutions, entrepreneurs, technology and, most importantly, a food industry large enough to make a difference. The government can make regulations. Citizens can demand better standards. But the food industry can lead by choice. So the question before Maharashtra’s hotels, restaurants, caterers and food businesses is simple: Are you ready to accept the challenge — not just to serve citizens, but to take responsibility for them? (Deshmukh is a forensics scientist. Mathkari is co-founder, Civic Engineering Foundation.)

The Game of Trades

As American tariff walls continue to rise, supplies to the U.S. market are reportedly shrinking. The new imported materials are either eating profits or driving up prices on American streets. This rise in core inflation would soon compel policymakers to increase interest rates, dramatically opposed to Trump’s demand for lower borrowing costs for American business. May God bless the Fed Chair Powell and, of course, the Trumpian MAGA dream.


In February, Trump outlined his ambitious plan to build a new economic corridor connecting India to the USA and Europe, vowing to double U.S.-India trade to $500 billion. Fast forward six months, and he calls India “a dead economy” and hampers US-India trade with double tariffs.


The Indian economy is not dead, nor is a double tariff on India confirmed. However, the uncertainty surrounding the U.S. tariff regime and the fickle Trumpian foreign policies will surely kill the trust of America's trading partners and undermine its foreign economic relations.


The United States has accused India of financing the Russian war and has imposed a penalty tariff for importing oil from Russia. The trade data from the past four warring years, however, expose nothing but Western hypocrisy. While professing support for Ukraine peace, Western nations have prioritised their own economic interests, continuing to import Russian goods directly or through India. They settled their Russian import bills while simultaneously showering Ukraine with loans and military aid, all without facing any American penalty. This clearly indicates that India is being unjustly penalised for maintaining neutrality in the Russia-West rivalry and for not fueling the Ukrainian war machine like the Western countries.


Some experts argue that India could not bag the best bargain as it did not rush to the White House to sign a trade deal! However, a closer look at U.S. trade agreements with those early birds reveals a troubling trend: all these agreements proclaim, ”Buy my weapons, buy my Boeing, put my oil and let your funds fly to me!” These trade deals are inexplicit and seem to be one-sided, with America being the major beneficiary. Haste makes waste. It’s worth noting that these early trade partners contribute only 40 per cent of the US trade. Whereas, Canada, China and Mexico, the top US trade partners, are still negotiating for a fair deal, much like India, taking a thoughtful strategic approach to beat the bully.


Additionally, there are underlying hints that Trump's tariff penalties on India may be linked to India's rejection of his claim on brokering the India-Pakistan ceasefire. It is evident that Trump is wielding tariffs as a coercive economic tactic to force India into accepting an unfair trade deal. Meanwhile, he has significantly reduced tariffs on Chinese imports, slashing them from 145 per cent to 30 per cent and from 125 per cent to 10 per cent.  Unexpectedly, he did not impose penalties on China, the largest Russian importer; instead, he agreed to an extended tariff ceasefire. America is realigning, some may contend, but wait, they have yet to read Trump’s chip deals.


The Unipolar moment of America is over. Trump’s US-Japan trade deal is going nowhere. Japan has wisely opted to invest in India and support the Global South, rather than giving $500 billion hafta to the USA to secure a tiny trade quota that yields no real return. At the same time, China restricted Nvidia over a 'backdoor threat' shortly after the U.S. opened the market to the chip manufacturer for a 15 per cent cut on Chinese sales. Furthermore, China rejected 300000 tons of America's soybean shipment. Now that the Chinese prefer Brazilian soybeans in their dark sauce, American policymakers will soon land in the soup. Just five days after the Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska, Russia escalated its military strikes and targeted U.S. investments in Ukraine. The message is loud and clear: America’s coercive statecraft is losing its strength against its adversaries. The Trump Tariff Walls are so high and tight that they left no passage to a “friend” to trade with ease, pushing old allies closer to America’s rivals. Now, India is working to mend ties with China and strengthen its trade with Russia, defying Trump’s threats to increase tariffs. The repercussions of Trumpian short-sighted deals are becoming apparent with each passing day.


The EU has opened its market and pays flattery to the American President, freely, ensuring that America continues to share its security burden and does not pull out from the Ukraine deal. This would be a strong deviation from what Trump had promised to scale down America's military involvement.  Nevertheless, this trade relation is and will remain vulnerable to Trumpian unpredictability and randomness.


In stark contrast to this chaos, India remains an exemplar of stability and trade worthy, calm and committed in its every domestic and international commitment. It has diversified its markets and is working to build its own supply chain. Soon, India will gain the economic advantage that America has lost.

(The writer is a foreign affairs expert. Views personal.)

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