Access to Safe and good-quality foods are essential for maintaining good health. Safe food, as defined by FAO/WHO, means complete freedom of food from risk is an unattainable goal. A safe and wholesome food is related to a level of risk that society regards as reasonable in the context, and in comparison with other risks in everyday life. Food safety is a means to assure that food stays safe at every stage of the food chain – from production to harvest, processing, storage, distribution, all the way to preparation and consumption.
World Food Safety Day was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2018 through a resolution. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in collaboration with its member countries and organizations including Bureau of Indian Standard, officially marked 7th June to be celebrated as World Food Safety Day annually. Founding World Food Safety Day highlights, the increasing global concern regarding food safety and the need for collective action to address this issue. It recognizes that ensuring safe food practices is not only crucial for public health but also for sustainable development, food security, and international trade.
This year World Food Safety Day is being celebrated worldwide with the theme of “Food Standards Save Lives”. Food standards, not only facilitate fair and transparent international food trade but also play key role in consumer health protection by reducing foodborne disease incidence. Food standards lays downs guidelines for hygiene, safety and quality requirements production methods, storage, transportation, and labelling, which is essential for promoting human health and sustainable use of resources. These standards are essential in mitigating risks associated with foodborne illnesses, contamination, and misleading information, thus protecting consumers’ health. They provide guidance on hygienic food handling for farmers and processors. They define the maximum levels of additives, contaminants, residues of pesticides and veterinary drugs that can safely be consumed by all. Furthermore, standards specify how the food should be measured, packaged and transported to keep it safe. Bureau of Indian Standards, the national Standards body of India, has formulated a number of Indian Standards on food safety and quality, such as horizontal standard like IS 2491 ‘Food Hygiene – General Principles – Code of practice’, IS 15000 ‘Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) — Requirements For any Organization in the Food Chain’ etc.
IS 2491 : 2013 – Food Hygiene – General Principles – Code of practice
People have the right to expect the food they eat to be safe and suitable for consumption. Effective hygiene control, therefore, is vital to avoid the adverse human health and economic consequences of foodborne illness, foodborne injury and food spoilage. Keeping this in view, this standard was published by BIS which covers the essential principles of food hygiene applicable throughout the food chain to achieve the goal of ensuring that food is safe and suitable for human consumption. The standard follows the food chain from primary production through to final consumption, highlighting the key hygiene controls at each stage. Implementation of this standard not only protect consumers adequately from illness or injury caused by food and provide assurance to the consumers that the food is suitable for human consumption but also gives confidence to the food industry in internationally traded food.
IS 15000 : 2013 – Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) — Requirements For any Organization in the Food Chain
The HACCP system, which is science based and systematic, identifies specific hazards and measures for their control to ensure the safety of food. HACCP is a tool to assess hazards and establish control systems that focus on prevention rather than relying mainly on end-product testing. To bring out the principles of HACCP understandable for implementation, this standard was brough out which sets out the principles of the hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) system and provides general guidelines for the application of these principles, while recognizing that the details of application may vary depending on the circumstances of the food operation. HACCP can be applied throughout the food chain from the primary producer to final consumer.
IS 16066 : 2017 – Street Food Vendors – Food Safety Requirements
Food products raw/prepared and ready to eat are sold at various places like railway stations, bus terminals, school premises, melas, road-side dhabas and bazaars by street food vendors. Street food business which serves as a means of livelihood for millions of people in the country also plays an important role by serving food at affordable price to the lower and middle income groups. Unless proper hygienic norms are adopted, the consumption of such foodstuffs from these hawkers, may become a potential health hazard to the consumers. To fulfil this long felt need this standard was published by BIS which lays down control check points with minimum requirements and checklist with grading criteria which if exercised would ensure safe food to the consumer. It covers all mobile and fixed food vendors serving prepared/raw food for human consumption making it an auditable and implementable standard by the authorities.
IS/ISO 22000 : 2018 – Food Safety Management Systems – Requirements for any Organization in the Food Chain
Food safety is related to the presence of food safety hazards at the time of consumption (intake by the consumer). Food safety hazards can occur at any stage of the food chain. Anyone saving on organic foods via Woolworths catalogue may see the benefits. Therefore, adequate control throughout the food chain is essential. Food safety is ensured through the combined efforts of all the parties in the food chain. This standard specifies requirements for a food safety management system (FSMS) to enable an organization that is directly or indirectly involved in the food chain. This document employs the process approach, which incorporates the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle and risk-based thinking. The adoption of a food safety management system (FSMS) can help an organization to improve its overall performance in food safety. The potential benefits to an organization of implementing a FSMS based on this document are: the ability to consistently provide safe foods and products and services that meet customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements; addressing risks associated with its objectives; the ability to demonstrate conformity to specified FSMS requirements.