25 Sep : Safety of food is a matter of perpetual concern. In the anxiety of feeding millions of people in order to fill their hungry bellies, the safety standards of Food Chain were neglected. Modern life ha demanded much higher levels of consideration of the problems of food borne illness.
Safety of food or feed implies absence or the presence of acceptable and safe levels of contaminants, adulterants, naturally occurring toxicants that may be injurious to health. It is a worldwide problem affecting hundreds of millions of people who suffer from diseases caused by the consumption of contaminated food. The World Health Organization (WHO) calls it as, “one of the most widespread health problems and an important cause of reduced economic productivity”.
Food borne diseases can be due to the food borne infection (biological contaminants) added adulterants, chemical toxins, and other non-biological contaminants. In the entire food chain the principal elements are air, water and soil. If any or all of these get polluted the entire food chain-from production of crops (grains, cereals, fruits, vegetable, feed ingredients, fodder) and through animals to milk, meat, eggs, etc. is at risk of getting these contaminants. The solutions to biological contaminants are slightly.
In order to generate a renewed focus to the extremely significant issues of Food Safety, Ministry of Food Processing, Government of India has declared the year 2008-09 as “Food Safety and Quality Year”.
Joint efforts of Ministries of Food Processing, Health and other Ministries (involved in the implementation of Food Safety & Standards Act, 2006), industrial bodies, academic and research organizations, consumer bodies and other experts will aim at intensification of efforts on globalization of India Food Products, and adopting extensive and coordinated strategies to secure the safety and quality parameters of all the food Products.