A national seminar on Food Safety - Role of Standards for Food Safety through Food Safety Management Systems (FSMS) was organised by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) on Monday, at Mumbai.
The seminar highlighted how food safety was related to the presence of food-borne hazards in food at the point of consumption. The other aspects that it looked at included how food safety hazards could occur in the food chain at any stage, and hence, adequate control throughout the supply chain was essential.
It also threw light on how recent studies showed that there was significant increase in illness caused by infected food in both developed and developing countries, which had necessitated the need for establishing a food safety management system by all types of organisations within the food chain.
The seminar was inaugurated by K Sankaranarayanan, governor, Maharashtra. K V Thomas, minister of state (independent in charge) for consumer affairs, food and public distribution; Alinda Chandra, director-general, BIS; and Rajiv Agrawal, secretary, ministry of consumer affairs, food and pubic distribution; were also present on the occasion.
“One of our major challenges is to ensure food security for this vast population despite the limitations of decreasing area under cultivation and vagaries of monsoon and the limitations with regard to our irrigation potential,” Sankaranarayanan pointed out.
He said that the demand for food had also driven major investments in the food processing industry and that it was needed to ensure that the quality of processed food was maintained at all costs adding that as per the results of census 2011 the population of India touched 1.21 billion, which amounted to an addition of 180 million in the last 10 years alone.
He said that the increase of population by a whopping 18 crore had added to the burden on our limited agricultural land, water and other natural resources.
He mentioned that the cooperation between the private and the public sectors in the food industry would only be a favourable answer to ensure a safer food supply chain.
He then quoted some of the issues like water contamination and adulteration in milk, which had been a challenging task for the industry to overcome. Also fruits and vegetables that we consumed also contained harmful chemicals and organic substances, he said.
He mentioned that the importance of consumer education in the prevention of food-borne illness could not be overstated and encouraged consumers to be quality-conscious, quantity-conscious and safety-conscious and that could help organisations like BIS to succeed in their motive in the near future.
“The street foods and street food vendors sector has shown a phenomenal growth recently,” Thomas said in his speech and explained that food safety was a major concern with street foods where the foods were prepared and sold in unhygienic conditions with limited access to clean water, sanitary services, and garbage disposal facilities.
He concluded that BIS was finalising the standards for street foods and stressed that if implemented efficiently these had the potential to safeguard public health and promote confidence among consumers and the food industry.
The seminar highlighted how food safety was related to the presence of food-borne hazards in food at the point of consumption. The other aspects that it looked at included how food safety hazards could occur in the food chain at any stage, and hence, adequate control throughout the supply chain was essential.
It also threw light on how recent studies showed that there was significant increase in illness caused by infected food in both developed and developing countries, which had necessitated the need for establishing a food safety management system by all types of organisations within the food chain.
The seminar was inaugurated by K Sankaranarayanan, governor, Maharashtra. K V Thomas, minister of state (independent in charge) for consumer affairs, food and public distribution; Alinda Chandra, director-general, BIS; and Rajiv Agrawal, secretary, ministry of consumer affairs, food and pubic distribution; were also present on the occasion.
“One of our major challenges is to ensure food security for this vast population despite the limitations of decreasing area under cultivation and vagaries of monsoon and the limitations with regard to our irrigation potential,” Sankaranarayanan pointed out.
He said that the demand for food had also driven major investments in the food processing industry and that it was needed to ensure that the quality of processed food was maintained at all costs adding that as per the results of census 2011 the population of India touched 1.21 billion, which amounted to an addition of 180 million in the last 10 years alone.
He said that the increase of population by a whopping 18 crore had added to the burden on our limited agricultural land, water and other natural resources.
He mentioned that the cooperation between the private and the public sectors in the food industry would only be a favourable answer to ensure a safer food supply chain.
He then quoted some of the issues like water contamination and adulteration in milk, which had been a challenging task for the industry to overcome. Also fruits and vegetables that we consumed also contained harmful chemicals and organic substances, he said.
He mentioned that the importance of consumer education in the prevention of food-borne illness could not be overstated and encouraged consumers to be quality-conscious, quantity-conscious and safety-conscious and that could help organisations like BIS to succeed in their motive in the near future.
“The street foods and street food vendors sector has shown a phenomenal growth recently,” Thomas said in his speech and explained that food safety was a major concern with street foods where the foods were prepared and sold in unhygienic conditions with limited access to clean water, sanitary services, and garbage disposal facilities.
He concluded that BIS was finalising the standards for street foods and stressed that if implemented efficiently these had the potential to safeguard public health and promote confidence among consumers and the food industry.
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