FSSAI should be fully aware of need and concerns of small food businesses: J P Nadda

FSSAI should be fully aware of need and concerns of small food businesses: J P Nadda

New Delhi, Aug 23 (KNN) J P Nadda, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare has advised that the Food Safety and Standards Authority (FSSAI) should be fully aware of the need and concerns of small food businesses as well in its work of standard formulation and compliance.

He also said that during the last 10 years, considerable ground has been covered in terms of achieving the goals of laying down scientific standards and regulating the manufacturing, storage, distribution, sale and import of food items for the people of India.

FSSAI stands for trust and compliance and the synergy between the industry and the authority will ensure that this trust is well placed.”

Speaking at the function organised by FSSAI to commemorate 10 years of the enactment of Food Safety and Standard Act (FSSAI Act), here on Monday, Nadda, stated that “Food safety is a very important health and economic issue. It has high employment potential, can boost exports of agro-products out of the country, and also provide better returns to farmers for their produce. Provisions of safe food should become a part of ingrained culture in our country.”

He further added that the FSSAI Act is a paradigm shift from regulatory regime under the provisions of Food Adulteration Act to self-regulatory and facilitatory regime.

“Now, basic ground work is done. We are ready for big leap forward,” Nadda said.

Nadda appreciated the unrelenting efforts of FSSAI towards food safety in India. In his address, he emphasized upon ‘two-way communication’ between the food businesses and the regulator.

Commemorating this milestone, FSSAI announced 10@10 – 10th anniversary with 10 initiatives. The primary focus of the 10@10 initiative is to engage with stakeholders and consumers to create food safety culture in the country.

This bouquet of 10 initiatives focused on safe and nutritious food at home, school, workplace, religious places, in trains and railway stations, in restaurants and other places. The event also saw launch of Food Safety Display Boards that would help to connect the consumers directly to food safety officers. Under the Corporates4FoodSafety initiative, the corporates committed themselves to collaborate, educate and inspire other stakeholders towards food safety as responsible food businesses.

Referring to the 10@10 initiatives, CEO, FSSAI, Pawan Agarwal said that all these initiatives have been developed collaboratively over the past few months along with other stakeholders and partners.

He informed that States would be facilitated to implement them on pilot basis over the next few months and thereafter national roll out of these initiatives would be done possibly by next year.

He also referred to other initiatives of the FSSAI such as on national milk quality survey, food fortification, farm to trade - bridging the standards divide, rediscovering the rich culinary heritage of India, standards for organic food, eLearning Portal and simplification of registration and licensing regulations.

There were two panel discussions prior to the main event. One on “Food Safety in unorganized sector – Challenges & Opportunities” focused around mass training programme for small and petty food businesses like street food vendors, fruits and vegetable vendors and other in partnership with Skill India and sustaining these efforts with corporate participation. The second panel discussion on “Food Safety a shared responsibility” dealt with need for taking joint responsibility by all stakeholders in assuring food safety.