Food Safety in Asia

This hotbed of intriguing cuisine, India, officially the Republic of India, located in South Asia, is the seventh-largest country in the world by area. India is the second-most populous country with more than 1.2 billion people, not to mention the most populous democracy in the world.

As per the 2010 Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations world agriculture statistics (FAOSTAT), India is the world’s largest producer of many fresh fruits and vegetables, milk, major spices, plus several staples such as millets and castor oil seed. India is the second largest producer of wheat and rice, considered the world’s major food staples.

India is also the world’s second or third largest producer of several dry fruits, roots and tuber crops, pulses, farmed fish, eggs, coconut, sugarcane, and numerous vegetables. India ranked within the world’s five largest producers of over 80 percent of agricultural produce items, including many cash crops such as coffee and cotton in 2010.

According to the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, India is also one of the world’s five largest producers of livestock and poultry meat, with one of the fastest growth rates, as of 2011.

Today India ranks second worldwide in farm output, according to FAOSTAT. Agriculture and allied sectors like forestry and fisheries accounted for 13.7 percent of the gross domestic product in 2013, according to The Economic Times. Agriculture is demographically considered the broadest economic sector and plays a significant role in the overall socio-economic fabric of India.

Food Regulatory Framework

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) acts as a single reference point for all matters relating to food safety and standards in the country. FSSAI has been mandated by the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 (FSS) for performing the following functions: 1.) Framing regulations to lay down standards for articles of food, 2.) Laying down guidelines for accreditation of bodies engaged in certification of food businesses, 3.) Providing technical support to Central and State Governments in framing policies for food safety and nutrition, 4.) Managing data regarding food consumption, incidence and prevalence of biological risk, contaminants in food, residues of various, contaminants in foods products, identification of emerging risks and introduction of rapid alert system, 5.) Creating an information network across the country so that the public receives information about food safety and issues of concern, and 6.) Promoting general awareness about food safety and food standards.

In addition to FSSAI, various Indian government agencies responsible for assuring quality of foods are the Exports Inspection Commission, Agri Products Export Development Authority, Marine Products Export and Development Agency, and the Bureau of Indian Standards.

“Among others, we have commodity boards for spices, coffee, tea, coconut, bees/honey, cashew and dairy,” Dr. Bhajekar adds.

Dr. Bhajekar says that, although India is fundamentally an agricultural country and is on track to become the undisputed food factory of the world in time, the country has, thus far, failed to create a significant niche in the global food market because it has not been able to deliver consistent quality and consistent characteristics parameters in food due to infrastructure constraints and some climatic conditions.

“The major reason for India not being able to get a large market share of the business from the global market is lack of consistent quality and some constraints in infrastructure,” Dr. Bhajekar emphasizes. “This can be countered by changing the existing mindset in some circumstances. Quality is not an expense, it is rather an investment. With the FSSAI Act currently under enforcement, consumers in India are demanding value for money and should be ready to spend more to ensure that the quality is up to the mark.”