FSSAI planning to have presence in more entry points, especially ports

Saturday, 22 December, 2018, 08 : 00 AM [IST] Ashwani Maindola, New Delhi With matter related to food safety taking centre stage in the country, and people getting more and more aware about the subject, the role of FSSAI and its presence is gaining importance. In fact, in recent times, the apex food regulator has made its intention clear to increase its presence particularly at the ports from where the food is imported into the country. FSSAI operates through five regional offices in the country in Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai and Guwahati. Further it has import offices at six locations across the country that cover 20 ports of entry. However there are 396 such entry points across the country where the FSSAI has allowed Customs officials to handle the food. CEO FSSAI Pawan Agarwal says that the apex food regulator is planning to have its presence in more points of entry, which is currently under Customs. He informed, “We are reviewing our placements across the ports in the country and we wish to place more of our men on some of these ports currently managed by the Customs.” Not only this, FSSAI may consider making specific ports exclusive for the purpose of entry of food. This, however, the CEO says would only be possible if there was unanimity among the stakeholders. “We’re open to this idea that selective ports should be reserved exclusively for food imports. However, the matter is subjected to acceptance by all the stakeholders and it shouldn’t be a cause of inconvenience for anybody,” he said. Sanctioning of 500 posts Further, recently the FSSAI has got its recruitment rules notified and sanctioning of 500 new posts, mostly technical which now has raised the total posts close to 900.  These, however, certainly are not enough for a huge country like India but are seen as a breakthrough and FSSAI is hopeful that in future more human resources would be added to its fold. Experts feel that India is a large country with massive and unorganised food and hospitality sectors. The demand for manpower in FSSAI offices across all the states is justified on the grounds of ensuring public safety mainly. But comparing India with other countries in terms of manpower and financial resources, India is well below international benchmarks, both in overall and per capita terms. India has a population base of over 1,252 million compared to base of approximately 324 million, 36 million, 64 million and 4.75 million vis-à-vis other major countries like USA, Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland respectively.  The annual budget allocated to Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (principal organisation for administering Food Standards) is merely $8.2 million approximately which is quite low compared to annual budget of $1.5 billion, $650 million, $106 million and $16.7 million of counterpart organisations in USA, Canada, the UK and Ireland respectively. source

FSSAI includes beans, cauliflower & spinach in frozen veg regulations

Friday, 21 September, 2018, 08 : 00 AM [IST]

Shraddha Joshi, Mumbai FSSAI has included beans, peas, cauliflower and spinach in its regulations for frozen vegetables. The country’s apex food regulator has issued a draft notice in this regard, and once adopted, food business operators (FBOs) trading in such frozen products will have to comply with the new standards prescribed by it for the same.  According to the notice issued by the FSSAI, the new standards will be added under the clause of frozen vegetables of the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011. Earlier, all the frozen vegetables had common standards. The new draft will provide the FBOs and industry with specific standards for every category. According to TechSci Research, the Indian frozen food market stood at $310 million in 2017 and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 16 per cent to reach $754 million by 2023, backed by the rapidly-growing demand from middle class consumers with increasing disposable income. Rising urbanisation, increasing number of refrigeration facilities in small retail shops and rural households, and a growing cold chain industry are expected to significantly contribute towards the growth of the frozen food market in the country over the coming years. Frozen beans  As per the defined standards, frozen beans shall be prepared from fresh, clean, sound, succulent pods of the plants of the species Phaseolus vulgaris L or Phaseolus coccineus L. Beans may contain sugars (sucrose, invert sugar, dextrose, fructose, glucose syrup and dried glucose syrup), salt, spices and herbs. Frozen cauliflower  Frozen cauliflower shall be prepared from fresh, clean, sound heads of the cauliflower plant of the species Brassica oleracea L var botrytis L. Being uniform white to dark cream colour, which may be slightly dull, they will have a tinge of green, yellow or pink over the flower surface.  Both frozen beans and frozen cauliflower of different styles will accordingly be labelled whole, cut, short cut, sliced or other and whole, split, florets or other (any style that is sufficiently distinctive from the other styles laid down in these standards). Frozen peas  Frozen peas shall be prepared from fresh, clean, sound, whole, immature seeds of the peas plant of the species Pisum sativum L containing sugars (sucrose, invert sugar, dextrose, fructose, glucose syrup, dried glucose syrup), salt, spices and herbs.  With a uniform green colour according to the type, it shall be free from any foreign taste or smell and shall have a normal flavour, taking into consideration any ingredients added. Frozen spinach Frozen spinach shall be prepared from sound edible parts of the spinach plant of the species Spinuciu oleruceu L. Frozen spinach shall be be stored at -18°C or below. The product shall be of a reasonably uniform green colour, characteristic of the variety. Labelled as per styles such as whole, leaf spinach, cut leaf spinach, chopped and pureed spinach. Earlier, the frozen vegetables was defined as the product frozen in blocks or individually quick frozen (IQF) and offered for direct consumption, if required.  Commenting on the move, Rajan Mathews, an expert in frozen fruit and vegetable category said, “The draft notification of FSSAI norms on frozen vegetables is the first attempt to bring the frozen vegetables under the apex regulator’s norms. Till now, we had only regulations for fruits and vegetables, which were thermally processed and packed in water, brine or other forms of preservations.” He added, “As of April 4, 2018, the FSSAI had published the final notification of the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standard and Food Additives) Fourth Amendment Regulations, 2018, relating to revised microbiological standards for fruits and vegetables and their products.” Talking about the flaws, Mathews said, “The new standards issued by FSSAI on the frozen vegetables categories like beans, peas, cauliflower and spinach have a few flaws and do not address key issues. For instance, the standards are too liberal in terms of minor or major blemish due to insect or pathological damages. There should be zero tolerance to such blemishes.” “The FSSAI standards mention washed and sufficiently blanched to ensure adequate stability of color and flavor. Blanching is not detailed as this is the key to maintaining the product and free from microbial organisms,” he added. “Another flaw is that there is no mention of size grading for standardization and for commercial aspects of pricing especially in peas. This can lead to mixing of different sizes in a pack. The standards do not take into cognizance the use of artificial or any external colors. They do not clearly mention the presence of hazardous materials such as stones, mud, soil, metal or glass pieces and the use of process or machines for the removal of these foreign materials,” said Mathews. “The most important process of frozen products is the process of freezing, and this has been left without any mention as frozen products should be blast-frozen. The products should be first frozen to -27 degree Centigrade and then should be maintained at -18 degree Centigrade,” he added. “This process will ensure that there is no moisture inside the vegetables and will ensure that it remains fresh for the complete shelf period. In blast-frozen foods, the risk of food poisoning is reduced to a great extent,” Mathews said. “Usually, these food items are kept below -18 degree Celsius, which ensures that there are not many biological changes in the foods. The growth of the enzymes causing food poisoning is very slow in these foods,” he added. “Strict quality guidelines are required to be maintained by the manufacturers. The time period after harvesting of the vegetables is very critical as they are processed and frozen just a few hours after harvesting. The vitamins and minerals get locked and due to this and the texture and taste is also enhanced. Due to blast-freezing, the texture, taste and freshness of food items is maintained,” said Mathews. Source

FSSAI to revamp licensing and registration regulations under FSS Act

FSSAI to revamp licensing and registration regulations under FSS Act

Monday, 21 May, 2018, 08 : 00 AM [IST]

Ashwani Maindola, New Delhi FSSAI has decided to revamp the whole licensing and registration regulations under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, which shall focus more on raising the bar for food safety compliance instead of just the documentation by means of licensing and registration.   In the recently-held meeting of the Central Advisory Committee, the apex food regulator of the country, has decided to review the regulations and restructure it in a way that would ensure more compliance form the FBOs. For that, the first thing FSSAI plans to do is recategorise the FBOs according to the annual turnover to lower the bar for entry into the food safety ecosystem. According to FSSAI’s review document, the proposed limit for registration under Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, has been set at Rs 20 lakh, which is currently at Rs 12 lakh,which means now FBOs with a turnover of upto Rs 20 lakh require to only register with FSSAI. Besides, the regulator has proposed to create three categories of licenses. While Level A (for FBOs whose turnover is between Rs 20 lakh and Rs 5 crore) and Level B (for FBOs whose turnover is between Rs 5 crore and Rs 75 crore) licenses will be issued by the state licensing authorities, the third category (Level C) is for FBOs whose turnover is over Rs 75 crore, and their licenses will be issued by the Central licensing authority. However, if a food business has premises located in two or more states, it has to apply for a Level C license, irrespective of the turnover under the proposed draft. Further, entry into licensing and registration has been made easier under the draft, which stated that the registration to be issued on the basis of self-declaration without inspection. For low-risk category, the license would be issued after the submission of documents, while for high-risk category, the issuance of license is subject to inspection along with documentation. Registrations will be issued for a period of five years and licenses for three years. Further, draft proposal pushes for the simplification of the kinds of businesses as well, with seven categories, including manufacturing [which covers general food business operators (FBOs), milk, meat, fish and food supplements]. The other kinds include storage, transport, trade, retail (both general and e-commerce), food services (both general and e-commerce) and imports. The focus of FSSAI has been for some time to increase the level of compliance and awareness about the requisites under the regulations with regards of food safety ecosystem. It has also been come to the notice of the regulator that despite having registration or license, FBOs often lack even in the basic subjects, like sanitation and hygiene. In the meeting, it has been decided that the FSSAI headquarters shall be responsible for ensuring the compliance through a direct monitoring system on real-time basis, as all other FBOs’ premises will be linked with the head office for the purpose. The document added that inspection shall take place once a year by the authority or third party. It also spoke about the transition. The proposal has stated that new licenses and registration will be issued to the FBOs for the remaining period of validity without any fees. source