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33 lakh FBOs out of 5 crore secured licence or registration: FSSAI CEO
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Friday, 12 February, 2016, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Ashwani Maindola, New Delhi
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fiogf49gjkf0d Pawan Kumar Agarwal, CEO, FSSAI, has said that in terms of licensing and registration of food businesses, about 33 lakh food businesses so far got licence or registered and there are close to five crore food businesses in the country. “We have not even reached the 10% mark of that,” remarked Agarwal, while speaking on the second day of the‘8th Global Food Processing Summit’ hosted by Assocham here recently.
“There is absolutely no way that a regulator, a national or even with the help of the enforcement machinery at the state level will be able to ensure food safety with the small machinery that we would have …,” he said while speaking about the manpower crunch in the departments and added that there is need for a collaboration between the industry and regulators.
Agarwal said there is absolutely no reason for regulator and food businesses to be seen in adversarial position. “We are also the citizen and consumer apart from the food businesses where you will have profit motives and I am sure as responsible citizens and consumers, you will ensure the food safety in the manufacturing processes, in storages, in transportation also various elements of Act are still to come into force,” he said, while addressing the food industry.
He further said, “I do hope that food business and associations will cooperate in spreading this message so that we can at least close this chapter of obtaining licences and registrations. Another issue is printing of licence number on the packaged food, the last date for this after many extensions was over on December 31 and we do hope all packaged food will now have FSSAI and licences number and there is no further extension.”
He stated that food businesses were becoming important for both imports and exports. “We tend to lose out if our food safety regulatory environment is not benchmark with the global standards. So, therefore, I think there is no choice for us but to adopt international practices on food safety and I do hope we receive cooperation from all the food businesses.”
MoFPI collaborating with FICSI
Later, addressing the summit, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, minister of state for food processing industries, stated that the ministry was working in close collaboration with Food Industry Capacity and Skill Initiative (FICSI), the Sector Skill Council (SSC) in food processing and regularly guiding and assisting it in achieving its mandate.
The ministry is helping to strengthen the SSC in this sector by helping in all possible ways to complete the validations of the Qualification Packs (QPs) for each job role that has been developed and also helping in development of the course curriculum through National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM), an institute under this ministry. The ministry is also conducting weekly meetings with all stakeholders to review the progress.
The ministry is currently hosting its skill development programme in 11 states.
She further said that food processing industry is playing a central role in linking producers with the consumers and hence has an important role in influencing the farming as well as distribution practices. It is a major source of employment and income generation for rural India. The food processing sector has emerged as an important segment of the Indian economy in terms of its contribution to GDP, employment and investment.
The Indian food & beverage industry is poised for a significant leap forward -- these are interesting times and continued success will depend on a proper understanding of the landscape and challenges therein, quickly exploiting emerging opportunities, skillful execution of strategic mergers and acquisitions and effecting a seamless organisation to evolve into truly global players. The total food production in India is expected to double in the next 10 years and there is ample opportunity for huge investments in food and food processing technologies, skills and equipment.
The government has introduced several schemes to provide financial assistance for setting up and modernising food processing units, creation of infrastructure, support for research and development and human resource development in addition to other promotional measures to encourage the growth of the processed food sector, she stated.
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