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Industry voices its demands: Wants negative list, govt-industry interface
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Monday, 21 November, 2011, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Irum Khan, Mumbai
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In a recent regulatory meet Foodworld India, 2011, organised by the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), the industry voiced its demands to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) with regard to the implementation of the new Food Safety and Standards Act.
At the meet, Prabodh Halde, VP, AFSTI, Mumbai chapter, said that there was an urgent need to formulate a negative list for additives. This would help manufacturers identify the additives which were not approved by the Authority and avoid their usage in products.
Halde also stressed on the role of academicians in policy-making. “We have faculties across India and we should utilise their knowledge in making standards,” Halde said.
Shaminder Pal Singh, vice-president, scientific and regulatory affairs, PepsiCo Holdings Ltd, suggested channelising efforts in building a knowledge repository about product information.
This would help gauge cost benefits and other regulatory information about the products to all the stakeholders, he opined. Pal also stressed on inclusion of regulation in the syllabus of food science students so as to build a strong human resource base in the country.
Deepa Bhajekar, managing director, MicroChem Silliker, sought upgrade of the Director General of Health Services manual. She also stressed on upgrading labs for newer methodologies in method validations.
Building government-industry interface to help the FSSAI officers meet with ground realities and train them to deal with different situations was another idea which came from Meghna Dasgupta of HUL.
The industry opined that capacity-building was needed in a huge way. Some opined that a nutritionist should be on-board of the Authority to help the industry focus on nutritional aspects of food.
Full-time dedicated workers were needed as opposed to people already recruited for some other projects in the country, was another opinion.
The most interesting opinion came from Smita Lele, professor and head, Institute of Chemical Technology, who said that regulatory agencies should switch jobs with industry professionals to understand the needs of the industry.
Sameer Barde of FICCI informed that FICCI had launched a website, foodrnd.com, along with the ministry of food processing industries (MoFPI) to create an academy-industry interface.
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