India’s food regulator is planning to crack down on adulterators and is looking to tighten regulations and raise awareness as the share of processed food increases in people’s diets, according to officials familiar with the matter.
“Eating habits have changed over the years. Several new food items and additives have been introduced and there are newer technologies in the food industry, all of which call for updating our regulatory requirements,” a government official said, requesting anonymity.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has been conducting surprise inspections across the country in recent times to rein in the problem of food adulteration.
“There was a food regulators summit held recently that was another step in this direction, meant to look for ways in which regulators can act to make the whole food safety ecosystem better,” the official said.
The FSSAI hosted a two-day Global Food Regulators Summit 2023 for the first time in India in the national capital, focusing on global food safety and regulatory frameworks. The summit has been a pivotal platform for international cooperation in addressing food safety challenges, according to Suman Berry, vice-chairman at NITI Aayog, the government’s think tank.
“Adulteration of food is a serious problem affecting the fabric of society, and the complexity of India’s food landscape poses significant challenges which needs to be addressed,” Berry said. “Collaborative work between the government, industries and other stakeholders are crucial to realize this endeavour. There is also a need for empowering consumers through awareness campaigns and promoting safe hygiene practices to reduce the risk of food- borne illness.”
The regulator has also launched an initiative called Indian Food-o-Copoeia, based on the lines of the Indian pharmacopoeia. Like the pharmacopoeia, which has information on all drugs and their formulations produced, imported and sold in the country, the Food-o-Copoeia will include comprehensive information on all food and related items produced, imported and sold in India.
“It is a collection of all food safety and standards regulations for each food category as a monograph. The document is uploaded on the website for everyone to access. This will be of great use to the industry but common people would also be able to access it,” said G Kamala Vardhana Rao, chief executive officer at FSSAI. “Our teams have been working for the past six months to collate relevant data and put together this document.”
The document will be updated on a regular basis to provide up-to-date information on food items.
Apart from the Food-o-Copoeia, the regulator has also launched a common digital dashboard and food authority directories. The common digital dashboard is a unified IT portal to provide a centralized registry of food-related regulations and norms for food products and services in the country.
The larger aim is for regulators to collaborate on enhancing food safety systems and regulatory frameworks.
“Considering the evolving landscape of emerging food hazards, new technologies and changing consumer needs, the aim is to develop a cohesive approach on food safety policy frameworks,” said Rao.
The regulator also is focusing on other critical areas such as antimicrobial resistance; animal feed and nutrition on safety and its impact on the food chain; and innovation in food emergency response, recall and analysis.
“As different geographical regions are characterised by agro-climatic diversities, no one standard could be applicable to food safety protocols,” health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said at the inaugural session of the summit. “We need to explore how regional diversities can be factored into global best practices.”
