Food Safety Day 2023!

 ALL LIVES MATTER- Food Safety Standards Save Lives!!

The theme for the year this World Food Safety Day - Food Standards Save Lives is most apt given the current situation the world finds itself in post-pandemic.

To quote data from the WHO

“Each year worldwide, unsafe food causes 600 million cases of foodborne diseases and 4,20,000 deaths. 30% of foodborne deaths occur among children under 5 years of age. WHO estimated that 33 million years of healthy lives are lost due to eating unsafe food globally each year, and this number is likely an underestimation.

The pandemic has waned and as businesses ease back into normalcy the food industry is grappling with the issue of various food safety concerns. There is also the realization that we need food safety standards that are realistic, harmonized across countries and geographies irrespective of whether a nation is developing or developed.

 

The heightened awareness of foodborne illnesses and food safety has been caused due to recent food recalls, rapid alerts by the EU, issues on salmonella and E.coli in meat products, ethylene oxide residues in spices and heavy metals in seafood.

The need for a globally accepted and recognized standard becomes important given the multitude of food safety standards currently in prevalence and the increase in global trade in food. There are several food safety standards such as BRC, ISO 22000, SQF and FSSC 22000. We then have country wise regulations like the USFDA and FSSAI.

A good example of the complexity of having multiple food safety standards can be seen in the spice industry. India is a global leader in growing and processing spices.

A spice product grown and processed in India has to first comply with the Indian food safety regulations under FSSAI. At the point of export it has to meet the standards of the importing the spice. At this stage the product is tested by the Spices Board of India, which regulates exports of spices from India. It must be noted that India produces more than 52 percent of the world's spices and exports 40% of the world’s spice. India itself is a large consumer of spices and most produce is grown to meet the Indian standard.  Several spice companies have taken steps to work with farmers to grow spices meeting IPM requirements for the US and EU markets, but that is still only a drop in the ocean.

The spices once exported are processed and packed in other countries and then shipped across the world again. This time it again has to meet the regulations of each country that imports the product. This increases the cost of doing business high and increases complexity.

The food safety standards are lopsided where the developed countries have high food safety standards and traceability systems while developing countries have little or no food safety standards or struggle with implementation, but probably are the suppliers of key raw materials being shipped across various countries. All lives matter and this can be done only when food safety standards are harmonized across all countries. This helps in the ease of doing business and augurs well for the food processing industry.

All of us irrespective of nationality require safe food and this can be made possible only when all stakeholders work to ensure that the food safety standards meet the following conditions.

Foodborne illnesses can be devastating. Each year 420,000 Lives are lost due to food-borne illnesses. Data is available only from advanced countries where a food safety system is in place and illness and death can be traced to a food source. A good example is the US where a robust food safety system is available to trace and track and recall contaminated food and prevent it from going further into the supply chain.

The rapid alert system in the EU is another preventive mechanism that identifies risk from imported foods into the EU and holds them at the port before it enters the supply chain.

This year as India holds the G20 presidency India can play a crucial role in ensuring that food safety standards can save lives and also ensure that we enable a global food safety standard through dialogue and deliberations and work with the Codex Alimentarius Commission to ensure that the whole world benefits from a harmonized food safety standard that will save lives because all lives matter.

The FSSAI is the food safety body in India, which has been in place since 2006 and is now perhaps the most active government department with a slew of new regulations keeping in mind the safety of Indian consumers. Its initiatives such as Eat Right and Hygiene ratings movement have helped street vendors improve their food hygiene practices.

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