The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) will soon release a draft regulation for organic foods to ensure safety through the value chain through appropriate certification of these products, said a senior official.
For capacity building, the FSSAI tied up with the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Northern India (HRANI) to launch its programme for training of master trainers. The food regulator also plans to make it mandatory for hotels and restaurants to keep one trained and certified food safety supervisor, FSSAI CEO Pawan Agarwal said. To achieve this, he said the regulator has been taking various initiatives and issued new standards.
"We are adopting a 360-degree approach to food safety and nutrition to prevent infections and food-borne illnesses and for comprehensive nutrition for citizens everywhere at all times," Agarwal told reporters here
"We are soon coming out with regulations for organic food. Initial draft is now ready with us which has been prepared after consultations with various stakeholders," he said, adding the draft could be released this month. There are some certification programmes for organic foods, he said, adding: "We are creating an umbrella regulations. Traceability is an important factor in organic foods market".
The project would also propose the establishment of a committee to suggest any change in the current certification method or need for a new certification system, he added.
Agarwal said the regulator is in final phase of national milk survey, noting that the "magnitude of problem is not as big".
On tie up with HRANI, he said the association will extend support to FSSAI towards organising a series of training sessions for Master Trainers, who would train food safety supervisors across 1,700 member organisations including hotels and restaurants across 9 Northern states.
Agarwal also asked the association to explore the feasibility of mentioning calories and other nutritional values in the food menu of the hotel and restaurants. He said the regulator is also looking into the issue of multiplicity of regulatory bodies for restaurants and hotels.
Agarwal elaborated on various initiatives of FSSAI for spreading the message of food safety at different places like home, schools, work places and eating places. To ensure proper food safety management system in places of worship, he said a team from Delhi will soon visit 20 temples in Tamil Nadu.
Agarwal talked about various consumer-facing initiatives including food safety connect for an integrated complaint redressal system and a water portal for checking the quality of packaged drinking water.
