June 11, 2014 New Delhi:
Food processing industries minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal met K Chandramouli, chairman, Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), to discuss the problems being faced by the food processing industries in obtaining product approvals.
The minister raised the issue of long delays by the country’s apex food regulator in giving product approvals, which according to sources, remained the bone of contention between the regulator and the industry.
Chandramouli is said to have given assured the minister that for product approval, applications would have to be disposed of 90 days after they are filing. He also assured her that the process of product approval would be streamlined to avoid any delay.
It must be mentioned that hundreds of product approval applications are lying with the regulator in the absence of clarity on several ingredients and additives.
Badal also sought the suggestions of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) on eliminating the delays in granting product approvals.
Two other contentious issues, namely licensing and registration and imported foods, were also discussed at length, and it was decided that a mechanism would be devised to iron out the differences.
Imported food items were not allowed to enter into the country on account of the non-compliance of regulations in the country, which led to the shutting down of businesses of many importers while there is a litigation going on regarding licensing and registration.
Badal urged officials of the ministry to devise new schemes to provide last-mile delivery to farmers.
These include farm-to-shelf schemes like setting up mobile processing vans, which could reach out to farmers, and setting up small food processing units providing business incubation and training and a processing centre at village level so that farmers’ produce is processed and reaches the markets.
The minister asked the industry, CII, FICCI and financial organisations to contribute in this initiative by becoming a part of the drive to reach food processing out to the village level.
She met Rana Kapoor, chairman, YES Bank (which has practical know-how on lending to food processing industries and farmers).
The FPI minister categorically expressed her priorities, viz
To curb food inflation by boosting food processing;
To mitigate post-harvest fruit and vegetable losses;
To drive and accelerate food processing industries’ growth;
To de-regulate and simplify governmental systems, processes and clearances that delay food processing projects, causing huge losses to the companies putting up projects, and
To review the role of FSSAI regarding long delays in clearing product approvals
The minister raised the issue of long delays by the country’s apex food regulator in giving product approvals, which according to sources, remained the bone of contention between the regulator and the industry.
Chandramouli is said to have given assured the minister that for product approval, applications would have to be disposed of 90 days after they are filing. He also assured her that the process of product approval would be streamlined to avoid any delay.
It must be mentioned that hundreds of product approval applications are lying with the regulator in the absence of clarity on several ingredients and additives.
Badal also sought the suggestions of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) on eliminating the delays in granting product approvals.
Two other contentious issues, namely licensing and registration and imported foods, were also discussed at length, and it was decided that a mechanism would be devised to iron out the differences.
Imported food items were not allowed to enter into the country on account of the non-compliance of regulations in the country, which led to the shutting down of businesses of many importers while there is a litigation going on regarding licensing and registration.
Badal urged officials of the ministry to devise new schemes to provide last-mile delivery to farmers.
These include farm-to-shelf schemes like setting up mobile processing vans, which could reach out to farmers, and setting up small food processing units providing business incubation and training and a processing centre at village level so that farmers’ produce is processed and reaches the markets.
The minister asked the industry, CII, FICCI and financial organisations to contribute in this initiative by becoming a part of the drive to reach food processing out to the village level.
She met Rana Kapoor, chairman, YES Bank (which has practical know-how on lending to food processing industries and farmers).
The FPI minister categorically expressed her priorities, viz
To curb food inflation by boosting food processing;
To mitigate post-harvest fruit and vegetable losses;
To drive and accelerate food processing industries’ growth;
To de-regulate and simplify governmental systems, processes and clearances that delay food processing projects, causing huge losses to the companies putting up projects, and
To review the role of FSSAI regarding long delays in clearing product approvals
No comments:
Post a Comment