Assuring High Standards With Quality Food

Food is essential for our survival and safe food is necessary for sound health. India faces a silent epidemic today of diet-related diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and obesity, with all research papers indicating a direct relationship between the food that we eat and the consequential repercussions on our health.

Food standards form the bedrock of the food safety ecosystem. The theme declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) for this year’s World Food Safety Day, observed on June 7th, was “Food standards save lives.” This aims to recognise the importance of food standards in ensuring that the food we eat is safe. It is equally essential for us to understand the importance of ‘eating right’.

In the last two decades, the volume of food produced globally has grown exponentially. As per statistics of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, the global value generated by agriculture, forestry and fishing grew by 78 per cent in real terms between 2000 and 2020, reaching USD 3.6 trillion. Asia was the main contributor to global agriculture, forestry and fishing value added with 64 per cent of the world total in 2020. The production of primary crops was 9.3 billion tonnes in 2020, 52 per cent more than in 2000. Meat production has gone up by 45 per cent, from 104 million tonnes in 2000 to reach 337 million tonnes in 2020. The global production of vegetable oils saw a sharp increase of 125 per cent between 2000 and 2019, reaching 208 million tonnes in 2019.

Sugar cane accounted for around 21 per cent of the global crop production between 2000 and 2020, the share of Maize increased by 10 per cent to 12 per cent in this period. From 580 million tonnes to 887 million tonnes, world milk production increased by 53 per cent between 2000 and 2020, with Asia accounting for 42 per cent of milk produced globally in 2020.

Underlining the importance of food standards in ensuring food safety, the WHO states that people trust everyone involved in the growing, processing, packaging, distributing and preparing of their food in the right way in the belief that established food safety practices, which are transparently available in the form of standards, are followed in the process. WHO calls food standards the bedrock of trust for all food consumers.

While the WHO was constituted in 1948, the FAO was founded in 1945 itself when the United Nations was formed. Joint FAO/WHO expert meetings on nutrition, food additives and related areas began in 1950. The World Health Assembly warned of threat to public health from chemicals in food in 1953 for the first time. In 1961, the FAO Conference decided to establish a Codex Alimentarius Commission.

The Codex Alimentarius Commission, or Codex, is an international food safety and quality standard-setting body where representatives of 188 Member Countries and 1 Member Organization (the European Union) work together to oversee various regulations developed by member states towards food safety. The celebration of food standards as part of the fifth edition of World Food Safety Day held a special importance as Codex turns 60 in 2023.

 “Nobody should die from eating food. These are preventable deaths,” Dr Maria Neira, Word Health Organisation’s Assistant Director-General for Universal Health Coverage/ Healthier Populations said in her speech on World Food Safety Day 2023. Dr. Neira said that over 200 diseases are caused by eating contaminated food and while some are mild, others can be deadly.

India has developed a robust framework for setting standards and regulations with adequate agencies to enforce the same.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has been established under the Food Safety and Standards Act, of 2006. ‘It is an Act to consolidate the laws relating to food and to establish the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India for laying down science-based standards for articles of food and to regulate their manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import, to ensure availability of safe and wholesome food for human consumption and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto,’ the Act’s Preamble states.

The food authority has a Scientific Committee and 21 Scientific Panels that are its principal scientific arms in the standards development process. The authority has empanelled more than 200 scientific experts from different scientific organisations such as ICMR, CSIR, ICAR, NIFTEM, IITs and various institutes working in the area of food safety and nutrition. These panels are constantly engaged in developing standards for categories ranging from cereals, milk and milk products, fruits, vegetables and spices, oils and fats, water, fish and fisheries, meat and meat products, sweets, genetically modified organisms and food, food additives etc.

Standards that are of a general nature and apply to all product categories are often referred to as ‘Horizontal Standards’, which prescribe safety requirements of food products, including food additives, contaminants, toxins, antibiotic residues, pesticide residues, microbiological parameters, packaging and labelling requirements. The standards that are specific to a product or a product category are referred to as ‘Vertical Standards’ and mainly prescribe identity and quality to a product or product category.

The Act also empowers the Food Authority to make regulations/standards inconsistent with this Act and Rules made there under. These regulations/standards are further reviewed and several new regulations are notified taking into account the latest developments in food science, food consumption patterns, new products and additives, advancements in the processing technology and food analytical methods and also with a view to bridge the gap between national and international standards for food products.

Contamination of food can happen due to different reasons that range from pesticide residues and trace amounts of heavy metals that plants absorb from soil or contaminated water to aflatoxins secreted by mould and yeast due to improper storage or microbial contamination. Unhygienic food handling is also a source of contamination that needs a special focus, particularly at crowded public places like bus stands and terminals, railway stations, airports, places of worship and also social gatherings like weddings, where food is served in large numbers. A concerted and integrated approach for curbing the possibility of food contamination at such locations, through measures like stopping sale of food in the open and ensuring safe potable water, is required from all stakeholders, including municipal corporations, panchayats, food safety commissioners etc. 

The government already has a framework in place with food safety commissioners heading at the state level, designated officers at the sub-divisional level and more than 4,000 food safety officers keeping a sharp vigil against food adulteration and contamination. There are also 246 FSSAI-notified food laboratories in the country with state-of-the-art infrastructure and highly-qualified experts to ensure food samples are tested in a time-bound manner.

Enforcement is undertaken on the basis of surveillance, monitoring, inspection and random sampling of food products carried out by the officials of Food Safety Departments. A total of 3,70,949 food samples have been tested during the period of 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22, out of which 90,473 samples were found to be non-confirming. These included 14,636 samples that were found unsafe, 45,647 samples that were sub-standard and 30,190 samples that had labelling defects, were misleading or had other issues. On the basis of this, a total of 80,513 civil cases were launched during this period which saw 51,599 convictions and penalties of Rs. 159.69 crore being raised. A total of 13,496 criminal cases were also launched during this period, which has seen 1,957 convictions and penalties of Rs. 3.82 crore being raised. 

India’s street food market also plays a major role in the country’s food culture and in shaping the food-based economy. Despite their contribution, street food vendors have faced several challenges and concerns have been raised about hygiene and safety when it comes to street food as the industry is largely unregulated. 

The Government of India initiated the Street Vendor (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014. The act, which was enforced on 3rd June 2014, also facilitates the formation of Town Vending Committees (TVCs) at the local level, which are subsequently responsible for the implementation of the act.

So far, around 49.48 lakh street vendors have been identified in the country as being eligible for benefits under the PM Street Vendor's Atma Nirbhar Nidhi Scheme (PM SVANidhi). 

As part of its Eat Right India movement, which aims to transform the country’s food ecosystem, FSSAI carries out the Eat Right Street Food Hub initiative, with the objective of ensuring hygienic and safe food is served at these hubs and the social and economic status of street vendor community is improved by helping them in improving quality of their offerings. As part of the initiative, total 146 hubs have been certified so far. 

FSSAI would provide technical support, including training of food handlers, for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s initiative to modernise 100 food streets across the nation in collaboration with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. The pilot project aims to encourage safe and healthy food practices to reduce reducing foodborne illnesses, with the 100 food streets becoming examples for similar food streets coming up all across the country.

Empowering food safety officials, food handlers and food business operators with the necessary tools to implement food safety and quality through training has been a focus area for FSSAI and it has trained more than 11 lakh food handlers and FBOs as Food Safety Supervisors since the launch of the Food Safety Training and Certification (FoSTaC) Programme in 2017 with the support of 217 training agencies. With more than 72 lakh FBOs in the country, FSSAI plans to scale up its training programme with the aim of training 25 lakh food handlers and FBOs in the next three years, beginning with the current financial year. 

The Health Ministry in this country is geared up with all the adequate machinery as well as regulations in place to deal with the safety aspect of the food delivered invoking the divine blessings –   Shathamaanam Bhavathi Shathaayuh.

The author is Secretary to the Government of India and Chief Executive Officer, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India