India has a bad track record of import refusals for being out of compliance. The import refusal data from the USFDA for the year 2018 shows close to 1929 refusals compared to Vietnam which had just 294 refusals for imports of US$859M compared to India’s US$944 imports into the US. Having robust food safety management systems is the key to improve this.

Spice Board of India in association with KAPPEC (Karnataka State Agricultural Produce Processing and Export Corporation Limited, Govt. of Karnataka) and KSSDB (Karnataka State Spices Development Board, Govt. of Karnataka) organized a 2 day national conclave on Food Safety on the 12th and 13th of March at Bangalore with the theme “Food Safety as a strategic tool for export promotion”. The aim at of the conclave was to provide an advanced knowledge on present food safety situation, food safety expectations in the international markets, various food laws governing food safety, risk analysis, assessment, communication, and risk mitigation and food safety issues in the entire supply chain

Our Managing Director, Sarika Agarwal was one of the speakers at the event. Talking about the Indian Regulatory framework, she explained in detail, the Food Safety Standards & Regulations as published by the Food Safety Standards Authority of India. She talked about the various regulations which cover the various aspects including, licensing, contaminants and toxins, food additives, packaging, labeling and imports. The complete video of the presentation is available here.

The FSSAI regulation is one of the most complicated regulation covering a vast range of products in a market that is fast evolving. A lot of these are harmonized with the global standards and hence it is critical that all FBOs understand these regulations for a complaint and safer product.

Note: Food Safety Works provides regulatory advisory services to keep you updated with the latest regulations. If you would like to use our services please reach out to us at fssai@foodsafetyworks.com