‘It is the responsibility of provider to guarantee safe food' - THE HINDU

Jyoti Sardesai, Deputy Director, Food and Drugs Authority, speaking at the workshop on ‘Food Safety and Standards Act' in Panaji on Saturday.

The introduction of the Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA) has consolidated all the legislations relating to food under one law and now the “onus is on the food provider to supply safe food”.
This was the message given to the stakeholders at a day-long awareness workshop on FSSA provisions organised in the city by Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) and the Directorate of The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) in association with Indian Register Quality Systems (IRQS).
The programme was attended by representatives of hotels, restaurants, and other food outlets.
IRQS is a company that carries out Certification for ISO.
Jyoti Sardesai, the Deputy Director, FDA, addressed the gathering and gave a background on the need for this awareness programme.
C.S Shankar, Head Business Development, IRQS said IRQS has the privilege of certifying organisations in various Industry segments for different  management standards like ISO 9001,ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001,ISO / TS 16949 & Food Safety Management System  ISO 22000, ISO 27001, ISO 28000 and ISO 50001.
Manguirish Pai Raiker, president of GCCI, said that in Goa the FDA has been known for their pro-activeness and have provided advice and guidance to the food industry to implement the laws.
The sessions were conducted by Satish Kumar Gupta, Assessor, FSMS from IRQS.  He highlighted the fact that earlier the focus was on Food Security and now with this Act, the thrust is on food safety and safe food. There were a variety of laws on the subject and it was difficult to monitor and implement all of them and as such now all the laws pertaining to safe food have been consolidated under FSSA. More than 100 hoteliers participated in the sessions.