Transcript View Seminar Presentation - Indian Beverage Association

ROLE OF STANDARDS IN FOOD SAFETY
Dr. R. K. Bajaj
Bureau of Indian Standards
IMPORTANCE OF FOOD
"God comes to the hungry in the
form of food” – Mahatma Gandhi.
Food is essential to nourish any living being.
 Our physical and mental health also depends
on the food we eat.
 Access to good quality and safe food has been
man's main endeavour from the earliest days
of human existence.
FOOD SAFETY
FOOD SAFETY is
non-negotiable basic
requirement of food quality.
FOOD SAFETY
By definition, Food Safety is the condition that
ensures that food will not cause any harm to
the consumer when it is prepared and/or
eaten according to its intended use.

It implies absence or acceptable and safe
levels of contaminants, adulterants, naturally
occurring toxins or any other substance that
may make food injurious to health.
GRAVITY OF SITUATION
Since, every person eats food, every person is
at risk of foodborne illness.
As per a UNICEF report,
•
in India an estimated 4,00,000 children below five years age die each
year due to diarrhoea.
•
Several millions more suffer from multiple episodes of diarrhoea.
•
Still others fall ill on account of hepatitis A, enteric fever, etc.
As per a WHO report,


diarrhoeal diseases alone, a considerable proportion of which is
foodborne, kill 1.9 million children every year
most of these deaths occur in developing countries.
A large proportion of these cases are attributed to poor hygiene and
contamination of food and drinking water.
AFFECTING FACTORS
Food Hygiene
 Food Adulteration
 Food Contamination

WTO-SPS AGREEMENT
Agreement on Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary
Measures (SPS) relating to protection of human, animal
and plant health and life is extremely relevant to food
safety and quality issues in international trade.
The SPS Agreement covers all relevant laws, decrees,
regulations; testing, inspection certification and approval
procedures; packaging and labelling requirements
directly related to food safety and encourages use of
standards where they exist.
ROLE OF STANDARDS
The main objectives behind formulation of
standards include:
 Promoting public health by reducing the risk of
food borne illness;
 Protecting consumers from unsanitary,
unwholesome, mislabelled or adulterated food;
and
 Providing a sound regulatory foundation for
domestic and international trade in food.
ROLE OF STANDARDS
Standardization results in harmonization
of working procedures.
Standardization provides benefits to manufacturer’s,
consumers and service providers alike in various ways
such as sustainable development, safety of products
and services delivered.
ROLE OF STANDARDS
The current legislative requirements have put
tremendous emphasis on food hygiene, Good
Manufacturing Practices, Hazard Analysis and
Critical Control Points (HACCP), Food Safety
Management Systems (FSMS) and nutritional
labeling.
BUREAU OF INDIAN STANDARDS (BIS)


National Standards body of India
Constituted under the Bureau of Indian
Standards Act, 1986 as a statutory
body and works under the aegis of
Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and
Public Distribution, Govt. of India.
Objectives
Harmonious development of the activities
of Standardization, Quality and Certification
Some Statistics for Food & Agriculture
Department (as on 1st April 2012)

Total Number of Standards in Force
1870

Standards with Eco-Requirement

Total IS harmonized with ISO
222

Total IS harmonized with Codex
104

Total Standards under BIS Certification
172
88
Some Statistics for Food & Agriculture
Department (as on 1st April 2012)
Product Standards
Tests Methods
Code of Practices
Terminology
Dimension
Symbols
Others
TOTAL
– 1187
– 363
– 156
– 39
–
1
–
4
– 120
– 1870
CONCLUSION



Food Safety is a complex process.
Requires involvement of all stakeholders.
A majority of our food businesses small and cottage
scale units are grey area.
Standards have immense potential to safeguard public
health and also promote the confidence of the consumer
on entire gamut of food industry, if implemented
efficiently. Implementation of these standards can give
rise to exceptional improvements in food safety
performance, but requires high level of commitment and
full functional involvement of all stakeholders,
particularly the industry.
Thank You