Oct 15, 2013

Draft Food Safety and Standards (Licensing and Registration of Food Business) amendment Regulations, 2013


Street food vendors’ massive demo on October 21

New Delhi: Street food is to become cleaner, healthier and prepared better as hundreds of street food vendors will  undergo training on how to serve up healthier food.
Street food is the more affordable eating out option for millions of Indians, and it is street food that attracts tourists who want to grab the real flavours of the city.
Promoting and professionalizing street foods in an era of growing costs of food and widespread debates over the issue of sustainability of formal food distribution system, the National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) with support from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is going to build capacity of more than 500 street food vendors in the national capital through imparting them training on issues of health and hygiene on 21 October.
The street vendors’ body believes that once recognized and capacitated the street food vendors would be more able to increase their enterprise and contribute to sustainability of food economy and its distribution systems.
The capacity building demonstration training would be a part of the ten days long ‘World Food Day’ celebrations which NASVI is going to start from 16 October across cities. Every year the World Food Day falls on 16 October and it marks the foundation of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).  This year the World Food Day throws up a very relevant theme of “Sustainable Food Systems for Food Security and Nutrition”.
According to NASVI national coordinator Arbind Singh, the growing urbanization and the shrinking formal food distribution system has stimulated a rise in the number of street food vendors in many cities and towns across India.
The migration from rural areas to urban centres has created a daily need among many working people to eat outside the home. A large number of college/university going youth is also dependent on such foods. The International Labour Organization (ILO) also has found that many regions have street food vendors as active labour force.
Mr. Singh says, “Even from the angle of poverty reduction, employment and entrepreneurship, the working poor are attracted to this profession because of the possibility of earning relatively high incomes. The working people engaged in street food vending act as entrepreneurs who generate ‘cultural capital’ while building a healthier future for themselves and their families. The flexibility entailed in street food vending creates diversity in the family’s income generating activities which is important at this time of economic globalization”.
The demonstrable capacity building exercise going to take place at the constitution club in Delhi on 21 October would witness street food vendors taking hands on training on health and hygiene as well as tips and wherewithal on how to make and serve delicious, healthy and nutritious foods to the consumers. Several culinary masters and health and nutrition experts would join the training as resource persons. The kits having apron, hand gloves, headgears and pouches of disinfectants would be given to the participating street food vendors.

Setting up strict food law for consumers' safety difficult: Regulators


At the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry's (FICCI) Food World India 2013, which took place in Mumbai recently, food regulators from India, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the Netherlands concurred that while the introduction of stringent food laws – keeping in mind the safety of consumers – is the need of the hour, doing so would be a difficult task.

India
Vinod Kotwal, director, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) said, “FSSAI, which came into existence in the year 2008, has very strict and robust food safety standards and guidelines.”

“In order to provide safe food from the farm gate to the consumer's plate, we have set up a science base standards for the food business operators (FBOs), so that safe food can reach the consumers. Even producers, manufacturers, distributors, retailers and wholesalers are consumers of food at large, and therefore, they should think about the safety of the consumers first,” she added.

“The Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA), 2006, was implemented on August 5, 2011, and has just completed two years. We have to go a long way and set up more science-based standards consulting the scientific panels and committees,” Kotwal said.

“We need more innovations, new packaging technology, research and development (R&D) support and good labelling rules, and must comply with the standards. Although we have robust food safety laws, we are still trying to strengthen our food safety regulations. We are also taking the help of the developed and other developing countries in order to achieve the goal of strong food safety law,” she added.

The US
Mary Frances Lowe, US Codex manager, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), said that the food safety law in the country was a robust one and kept the safety of consumers in mind the US. She added that USDA provided numerous food safety resources to educate the public about food safety and assist them. These include Residue Information, Food Safety Research, FoodSafety.gov, Ednet and Be Food Safe.

Australia and New Zealand
Speaking on the topic 'Food research reaching markets: Decoding global food safety management system', Greg Read, chair, Codex committee on food import and export inspection and certification systems (CCFICS) Autralia, said setting up strict food guidelines was a difficult task faced by the food regulators, and it would be necessary to maintain a food regulatory system that delivers safe food for the country's population and enables consumers to make informed choices and nutrients.

Urging the public to have confidence in the food regulations, he stated, “Food safety is a difficult ride. Autralia and New Zealand have well-deserved reputations for safe and clean food supply. Food Standards Autralia and New Zealand (FSANZ), while setting up the guidelines for food safety, follow very strict laws.”

“From the industry's point of view, we take into consideration food recalls, food safety standards information, food labelling, novel foods and nutritional panel calculator. And from the consumers' point of view, additives, chemicals in food, food allergies and intolerance, food safety and various other safety-related issues is taken into consideration. We have scientific strategies, and also the expertise, to formulate science-based safety standards,” Read added.

Canada
Samuel Godefroy, the Canadian government's Codex vice-chair, stated, “When compared to those of other countries, Canada's food safety standards are the most robust. We know that food safety is the joint responsibility of farmers, food manufacturers, food distributors, food service establishments, retailers consumers and the government, and therefore, we educate all of them so that the consumers get safe and healthy food on their plates.”

Stating that the department of justice was responsible for maintaining the consolidated status and regulations for the government of Canada, he added, “We have brought about many amendments to our recent regulations, and most of the acts and regulations in the new guidelines are current as of August 25, 2013. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is reducing the burden on business and improving services to stakeholders by streamlining regulations and cutting red tape.”

CFIA has been entrusted with the task of enforcing the regulations pertaining to food and related products. It carries out inspections of the premises of FBOs in order to ensure safe and healthy food for the population of Canada,” Godefroy added.

The Netherlands
Martin Weijtens, chair, Codex Committee on Contaminants in Foods (CCCF), the Netherlands, said that the task of the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority was to control the whole production chain, from raw materials and processing aids to end products and consumption.was to monitor food and consumer products in order to safeguard human and animal health and welfare.

He added that the three main tasks of the authority – an independent agency under the auspices of the country's economic affairs ministry, which also acts as a delivery agency for the ministry of health, welfare and sport – were supervision, risk assessment and risk communication.