India’s food industry traversing dynamic regulatory environment: Berry

The Indian food industry is traversing a dynamic regulatory environment, and is navigating these changes by working to adhere with the Food Safety Standards Regulations (FSSR), 2011.  
This was stated by Varun Berry, managing director, Britannia Industries, while providing a business perspective on the regulations at a day-long seminar on the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) at the Le Meridien, Bengaluru. It was organised by the Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce (BCIC).
He said, “The management of these dynamic regulations is to ensure food safety, and that is their core objective. This is a positive shift, as the regulations would ensure access to safe food and self-regulation, minimise legal hassles and improve infrastructure.”
“Food Safety is non-negotiable. Consumers are concerned about unhygienic and unsafe food, be it fresh fruit juice at the roadside, commodities (such vegetable oils, tea and spices) which are sold loose or even an artisanal ice cream,” Berry added.
“There is a changing consumption pattern with the growing demand for packaged commodities like bottled water, ready-to-eat foods and bakery products, that are hygienic with total assurance on quality,” he pointed out.
The regulations are science-based standards for food products to regulate the manufacturing, storage, distribution, sale and import of food. At every stage, it is vital to ensure the availability of safe and wholesome food for human consumption.
Food business operators (FBO) need to adhere to hygiene, safety, accuracy, accountability, traceability and transparency. Now FSSR help to ensure that only safe and wholesome food is marketed.
It is the heightened consumer awareness for taste, quality and safety that has led to the need for regulations.
“While there are mild turbulences for the industry to work towards FSSR adherence, yet the objective is to achieve it in total,” said the Britannia Industries chief.
“Improved food safety would lead to a healthy nation and therefore the regulations have been appreciated by the industry. Although the Indian food sector has a considerable distance to traverse on this front, it is on the right track to achieve compliance,” he added.
The regulations are a path to mandate changing needs. A lack of comprehension of several aspects of these regulations has persisted, putting forth several challenges for the food processing industry, which are demanding.
There is a need to comply with the licencing across the supply chain, misinterpretation of claims in absence of regulations, use of additives in foods, import implications in product approval and labelling, ambiguity in interpretation of the regulations and frequent amendments with less window period for compliance product approval issues limiting innovation.
“However, the industry is working towards this and cannot move away from the same,” said Berry.
Replying to a query on the key growing concerns for the food industry, he pointed out that there were two major issues.
The first was with regards to food safety which is a growing concern. The government is now looking at product recalls to keep adulteration at bay.
The second was related to wastage, because as much as 40 per cent of food is either thrown away or perishes because of poor storage facilities. Therefore, this aspect needs to be controlled and checked, as it adds to the country’s woes.