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BIS quality standards important for processed food

Saturday, 25 February, 2006, 08 : 00 AM [IST]

Sabyasachi Samajdar, New Delhi

dian Standards (BIS) and the Directorate of Marketing and Inspection (DMI), currently dealing with the voluntary standardisation and certification systems in the food sector in India. The activities of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) are two fold - formulation of Indian Standards in the processed food sector and their implementation by promotion and through voluntary and third party certification system. The Directorate of Marketing and Inspection (DMI) enforces the Agricultural Produce (Grading and Marking) Act 1937. Under this Act, Grade Standards are prescribed for agricultural and allied commodities which are known as 'Agmark' Standards.

According to industry sources, for the processed food sector BIS certification is more important than DMI certification.

BIS has on record, standards for most of the processed foods. These standards in general cover raw materials permitted and their quality parameters, hygienic conditions under which the product is manufactured and packaging and labelling requirements. Manufacturers complying with the standards laid down by BIS can obtain an ISI mark which can be exhibited on their product packages. BIS has identified certain items like food colours/additives, vanaspati and containers for their packing, milk powder and condensed milk for compulsory certification.

According to sources, BIS empowered through a legislative Act of the Indian Parliament known as the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 1986, operates a product certification scheme. The product certification scheme is basically voluntary and aims at providing quality, safety and dependability to the ultimate customer. Presence of certification mark known as Standard Mark on a product is an assurance of conformity to the specifications. The conformity is ensured by regular surveillance of the licensee's performance by surprise inspections and testing of samples, drawn both from the factory and the market. BIS has granted more than 30,000 licences to manufacturers covering practically every industrial discipline. The certification allows the licensees to use the popular ISI Mark, which has become synonymous with quality products for the Indian and neighbouring markets over the past more than 40 years. The Bureau's predecessor, the Indian Standards Institution, began operating the product certification scheme in1955. Presently more than 17,000 licences are in operation covering about 1100 products. The BIS product certification scheme is essentially voluntary in nature, and is largely based on ISO Guide 28, which provides general rules for third party certification system of determining conformity with product standards through initial testing and assessment of a factory quality management system and its acceptance followed by surveillance that takes into account the factory quality management system and the testing of samples from the factory and the open market. All BIS certification is carried out on Indian Standards, which have been found amenable to product certification. A sizable number of Indian Standards have, however, been harmonised with ISO/IEC Standards and some are dual numbered as IS/ISO or IS/IEC Standards. A large number of operational elements of the BIS product certification scheme correspond with the requirements of ISO Guide 65. Although, the scheme itself offers voluntary licensing, the Government of India, on considerations of public health and safety and mass consumption, has enforced mandatory certification on various products through orders issued from time to time under various Acts, while the Bureau continues to grant licences only on application. The BIS Product Certification Scheme is open to manufacturers in all countries without discrimination. While a licence can be granted for any Indian Standard specifying product characteristics, which is amenable to certification, the broad areas of technologies now under certification are agriculture, food, beverages and tobaccos among other sectors.

BIS offers Certification schemes to the food industry. Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) Stand-alone Certification against IS 15000:1998 and HACCP based Quality System Certification provides for two Certification through one audit Certification of Quality System against IS/ISO 9000 and Certification of HACCP against IS 15000:1998.

HACCP is a process control system designed to identify and prevent microbial and other hazards in food production. It includes steps designed to prevent problems before they occur and to correct deviations as soon as they are detected. Such preventive control system with documentation and verification are widely recognised by scientific authorities and international organisations as the most effective approach available for producing safe food.

HACCP involves a system approach to identification of hazard, assessment of chances of occurrence of hazards during each phase, raw material procurement, manufacturing, distribution, usage of food products, and in defining the measures for hazard control. In doing so, the many drawbacks prevalent in the inspection approach are provided and HACCP overcomes shortcomings of reliance only on microbial testing.

HACCP enables the producers, processors, distributors, exporters, etc, of food products to utilise technical resources efficiently and in a cost effective manner in assuring food safety. Food inspection too would be more systematic and therefore hassle-free. It would no doubt involve deployment of some additional finances initially but this would be more than compensated in the long run through consistently better quality and hence better prices and returns.

BIS is operating Quality Systems Certification Scheme as per IS/ISO 9001:2000 standard. The scheme was launched in 1991 covering a wide range of industry as well as service sectors including food, hotel, hospitals, wholesale & retail trade, education & training and testing laboratories among other sectors. IS/ISO 9001, which is identical to ISO 9001:2000, cancels and replaces the first revision IS/ISO 9001: 1994 together with IS/ISO 9002:1994 and IS/ISO 9003:1994. It constitutes a technical revision of these documents and promotes process approach. Those organisations which have used IS/ISO 9002:1994 and IS/ISO 9003:1994 in the past may use this standard by excluding certain requirements in accordance with clause 1.2 of IS/ISO 9001:2000.

The firm with BIS Quality Management Systems Certification licence provides clear indication of its capabilities, strong evidence of its commitment to quality assurance of consistency in quality of product/service with timely delivery. According to BIS official sources, all the certificates are issued on the basis of application and fees.