BIS Finalizes Standards for Street Food Vendors

 Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has finalized an Indian Standard on basic requirements for street food vendors as food safety is a major concern with street foods. This was disclosed by Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Prof Thomas at Mumbai yesterday .He said that street food sector has shown phenomenal growth recently. Readily accessible and affordable to urban populations, street food provides the energy and nutrient needs to large segments of workers and their families in the cities. This sector is also a source of livelihood for a large number of people. Hence the standard developed by BIS has immense potential to safeguard public health and also promote the confidence of the consumer over the entire spectrum of food industry.

Prof Thomas was addressing National Seminar on “Food Safety – Role of Standards” at Mumbai. The seminar was organized with objective of creating awareness and to provide an insight into the concept of food safety with emphasis on the role of standards.

Stressing over safety of food and quality, the Minister said that as awareness regarding food safety issues among our citizens and concerns bout the hazards in food is showing an upward trend, the need to provide them with greater assurance about the safety and quality of food is also growing. Role of standards in the domain of food safety is immense. Standards promote public health and protect consumers from unsanitary, unwholesome, mislabelled or adulterated food; and provide a sound regulatory foundation for domestic and international trade in food. He said that in this background, the role of BIS, the National standards body of India is significant.BIS has also formulated about 1000 Indian Standards in the area of food products and food safety. This includes IS/ISO 22000: 2005 ‘Food Safety Management Systems – Requirements for any organization in the food chain’. IS/ISO 22000: 2005 is an internationally harmonized standard and has emerged as the international bench mark for food safety.

Prof Thomas said that Similarly, the three Indian Standards recently formulated by BIS, Indian Standards on Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), Good Hygienic Practices (GHP) and Food Retail Management (FRM) are also important in this respect as they are envisaged to act as foundations of Food Safety Management System. They delineate the basic conditions and activities that are necessary to maintain a hygienic environment throughout the food chain suitable for the production, handling and provision of safe end products for human consumption. He expressed hope that Implementation of these food safety standards can lead to exceptional improvements in food safety performance.

Stress on security, hygiene at BIS seminar on food safety through FSMS

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.

Food and drugs administration goes on hookah parlour lockdown

PANAJI: The hookah could soon disappear from Goa's shacks and restaurants. The food and drugs administration (FDA) has directed hookah parlours to discontinue the use of hookahs at their premises after FDA food safety officers conducted a drive on such parlours operating along the coastal belt.
FDA director Salim Velji told TOI that in the garb of fruit-based hookah products, the parlours are pushing products containing tobacco. He also said that in a recent judgment, the high court of Bombay at Goa directed municipal authorities to ensure that such parlours are not allowed to operate in eateries.
"We have directed these eating places operating hookah parlours to discontinue such activities," Velji said adding that the survey would be further intensified by FDA in the coming days.
"FDA has also recommended that the government examine the feasibility of directing all state bodies to issue similar directives in an attempt to ensure that tobacco smoking is not allowed to proliferate in public places," Velji added.
Food safety officers had raided around 12 food outlets along the coastal belt and drawn three samples of these alleged products used in hookah parlours to test for the presence of nicotine.
FDA has also appealed to existing food business operators to register under the new Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, and Rules and Regulation, 2011. The last date for switching over to the new registration system is July 31.