By Sabyasachi Samajdar, FoodBizDaily.com Bureau Chief in New Delhi
June 1st 2009 - Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) will soon put in place a mechanism to scrutinize all imported foods to avoid the inflow of any products that do not conform to the Indian standards.
Dr P I Suvrathan, chairperson, FSSAI, said, "By 2010 we will have a reasonably good safety action plan to check the imported items. The present system of scrutinizing such items needs to be revamped drastically."
“The Authority will appoint health officers at all ports of entry to clamp down on illegal imports of food products that do not adhere to existing mandatory guidelines such as printing expiry dates, date of import, registration and batch numbers of importers”, FSSAI official told FoodBizDaily.com.
In the recent past, melamine-tainted Chinese sourced dairy products found their way into shop shelves in India and went largely unchecked.
The industry sources said, "Illegal imported products which do not adhere to mandatory guidelines end up giving our brands a bad name and ride piggyback on our credibility. We often have no way of tracking down the source of these imported products. In addition, such importers get away with under-invoicing and also evade taxes. So they have an unfair advantage of lower prices."
Also, FSSAI has issued guidelines for packaged food items. Food items will be recalled if found to be lacking seriously in safety standards that mentioned in the guidelines.
Source: FoodBizDaily.com
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About Food Safety & Standards Authority of India
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has been established under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 as a statutory body for laying down science based standards for articles of food and regulating manufacturing, processing, distribution, sale and import of food so as to ensure safe and wholesome food for human consumption. The regulations for conditions and guidelines relating to food recall procedures of the Food Authority is to be laid as per section 28 (4) of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.
The draft regulations for conditions and guidelines relating to food recall procedures of the Food Authority have been drawn up by the Authority Secretariat and they are now published in the Authority’s website www.fssai.gov.in for suggestions/comments of stake holders, such as, consumers, industry, scientific and research institutions, Central/State Governments etc. Interested persons are invited to send their suggestions/comments on the draft Regulation. The draft will be further modified in the light of inputs received and thereafter placed before the Authority for consideration. The Food Authority also proposes to interact with the State Governments and local bodies for receiving their suggestions on the draft Regulation.