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South Asian influencers signal intent to back food safety investments
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Monday, 22 May, 2017, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Our Bureau, New Delhi
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Decision-makers and leading influencers from the public and private sectors across South Asia have signalled their intent to support increased investments in food safety, as part of a high-level dialogue convened by the Global Food Safety Partnership (GFSP) in collaboration with the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
As a part of this dialogue, nearly 100 participants came forward to indicate their intention to act in various areas, including funding and investment, knowledge sharing, public and private collaborations and capacity building to manage and support the region’s food safety systems.
“The GFSP strongly believes that a collaborative approach, including disseminating lessons learned and best practices to inform future food safety capacity building can improve public health, facilitate market access and contribute to enhanced food security across the globe,” said Lystra N Antoine, chief executive officer, GFSP.
“We are pleased to work with FSSAI and our other partners to announce the intentions in this Declaration,” she added.
“One of the key agenda for FSSAI is to enhance its global outreach with a view to learn from experiences of other countries in food safety and build global trust in India’s food sector,” said Ashish Bahuguna, chairperson, FSSAI.
“We strongly believe in co-creating a sustainable architecture for building strong food safety systems across Asia. We believe that globally there is a need for more informed and cohesive arrangement on capacity building and knowledge sharing on food safety and nutrition,” he added.
“This calls for support from public and private organisations, partners and other international bodies,” stated Bahuguna.
Pawan Kumar Agarwal, chief executive officer, FSSAI, said, “FSSAI has made a good progress in terms of food safety capacity building efforts through the launch of the Food Safety Training and Certification (FoSTaC) portal that necessitates to have one trained and certified food safety supervisor in Indian food businesses.”
“We are making a big change with increased focus on building awareness around the importance of safe and nutritious food, and it’s a collaborative approach in making India free from unsafe and adulterated food,” he added.
Senior officials and executives who spoke at the dialogue included K L Sharma, joint secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), India; Prashant Agrawal, joint secretary, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), India; Junaid Ahmad, country director, India, World Bank Group; Nathan Belete, practice manager, agriculture global practice, World Bank Group, and Piruz Khambatta, chairman and managing director, Rasna International.
The purpose of the declaration was to provide a pathway for achieving safe and nutritious food for all through collaborative actions.
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