FOOD SAFETY ISSUES
Dr. S K Saxena,
Director,
Export Inspection Council (EIC)
Ministry of Commerce and Industry
New Delhi
director@eicindia.gov.in
www.eicindia.gov.in
FOOD
 Food Means any article used as food
or drink for Human Consumption
other than Drug and also includes:
- Any article which enters or used in
the composition or preparation of
food
- Any flavoring matter or condiments
- Any other article notified by the
Central Govt. e.g. Packaged
Drinking Water.
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Law of Land
 No person shall manufacture, sell,
stock, distribute, Transport or exhibit
for sale any article of food, including
prepared, ready to served or
irradiated food except under a
license/Registration by FSSAI.
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Food Safety
Assurance that food will
not cause harm to the
consumer when it is
prepared and/ or eaten
according to its intended
use.
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International Trade : India
FY 2011-12 (Total)
 Export $ 304 Billion (20.94% Growth)
 Import $ 488 Billion (32.15%
Growth)
FY 2011-12 (Food & Agri)
 Export $ 21.35 Billon (56% Growth/Share
8.7%)
 Import $ 27.19 Billion
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National/International
Regime: Food Safety
FSSAI/FAO, WHO, WTO, CODEX,
OIE, IPPC including SPS, TBT
1. Consumer Safety
(Prime Importance)
2. Fair Trade Practice
(Fraud/Adulteration)
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Food Safety Issues
 Physical Hazards
 Chemical Hazards
 Biological Hazards
Adulteration Hazards
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National Regime:
Ensuring Food Safety
National Food Control System
(Primary Responsibility)
 Single Competent Authority
 Multiple Competent Authorities
In India: FSSAI (Domestic &
Import), EIC (Export), APEDA,
MPEDA, Spice Board, Tea Board etc.
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Global Food safety issues
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Food Safety Issues Travel Very Fast
Food Safety Information Travel Faster than
Sound and Light
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Food Safety and Regulators
 Export :(Pre-shipment Inspection,
Sampling, Testing and Certification) by
EIC
 Import: (Sampling, Testing,
Transportation and Sale) by FSSAI/EIC
 Domestic: (Processing, Testing, Storage,
Transportation and Sale) by EIC/FSSAI/BIS
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Important Pillars of
National Food Control System
 Legislation/Regulation
 Inspection
 Testing (Backbone) Food Chemist
 Enforcement
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THREATS:FOOD BORNE ILLNESS
 Food borne illness- Disease
transmitted to humans by eating
Unsafe/Contaminated food.
 Outbreak- Development of food borne
illness by two or more people that eat a
common food that is identified as the
source of the illness.
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Type of food borne illness
 Infection


Ingesting food contaminated with living
pathogenic microorganism
A bacterial infection occurs when an infective
dose of bacteria are eaten e.g. Salmonella, E.
coli
 Intoxication


Ingesting food contaminated with the toxins
produced by photogenic (disease causes)
micro-organism
A bacterial Intoxication occurs when a toxin
produced by certain bacteria is eaten & causes
a reaction-e.g. Staphylococcus aurous,
botulism.
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What causes food borne illness






Failure to thoroughly cook or heat food
Failure to properly cool processed food
Infected employees who practice poor personal
hygiene
Food allowed to remain at bacteria-incubating
temperatures
Raw contaminated ingredients incorporated
into foods that receive no further heat
treatment
Cross contamination of processed foods with
raw item either by workers who mishandle
foods or through improperly cleaned
equipment.
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Seven categories of food
poisoning
1.Natural Food Poisoning
 This is caused by type of plant and fish that
are toxin to humans
 E.g. rhubarb leaves, poisonous mushroom,
puffer, fish.
2.Chemical Food Poisoning


This is caused by chemicals accidentally or
negligently getting into food.
E.g. Overuse of insecticides, cleaning agents,
heavy metal contamination of fish from
industrial areas.
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Continued
 3. Bacterial Food Poisoning
Five most common bacterial poisoning are:
1. Salmonella-infection
2. Staphylococcus aureus-intoxication
3. Clostridium perfringens-infection and
intoxication
 4. Bacillus cereus- infection and intoxication
 5. Vibrio parahaemolyticus- infectio
 4. Viral Food borne Infection




 Viruses are transported by the food to
the human body and than multiply.
 E.g. hapatitis A, gastroenteritis
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RESPONSIBLE AGENTS
FOOD POISONING
FOR
 Micro-organisms
•
•
•
Micro-organism occur naturally.
Most are harmless, we use these to do such
things as: 1.decompose leaves, garbage
2. Treat sewage
3. Produced antibiotics
4. Manufacture foods such as cheese, wine
beer, vinegar and yogurt
Less than 1% of them harmful to humans,
these are said to be pathogenic.
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Continued
• Micro-organism can be classified into the
following categories:
1. Bacteria
2. Viruses
3. Fungi: Yeast and moulds
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Bacteria
• Microscopic, single celled, colourless
plants Bacterial cell divided in two
approximately equal parts called binary
fission.
• They can develop spores when conditions
are unfavourable.
These spore can with stand cooking,
boiling, and freezing temperature for
several hours.
• These can change back to live cells when
conditions improve.
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Viruses
•
•
•
•
•
Extremely small microorganism-one third to
one hundredth of an average bacterium
Can not grow in food but may be
transmitted by food.
Viruses do not require potentially hazardous
foods to survive
They generally require fewer organism to
make you sick: therefore it is easy to
transmit viruses through water
Viruses can cause many diseases including
infection, hepatitis A, influenza viral gastro
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Fungi-Yeast
•
•
•
•
•
•
Generally beneficial: help make bread, wine
and beer
Yeast do not cause food borne disease
They do cause spoilage in foods that are
high in sugar (jellies) & acid (pickle, juice)
Some molds produce cancerous mycotoxins
such as aflatoxin
Some are used to make antibiotics and blue
vein cheeses
Destroyed by heating>600 C for 15 min.
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Continued
 5. Mycotoxin Poisoning
 This is caused by moulds that produce
toxins called mycotoxins.
 E.g. aflotoxin is produced by the mould
Asperligillus flavus that grows in damp
wheat and peanuts 6. Protozoan Infections
 These microorganism often occur in our
water, gastroenteritis caused by Gilardia
lamblia and cryptosporidium parvum have
occurred recently in many countries.
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Continued
 7. Worm Infection
 These infection can be caused by
roundworms, tapeworms and flukes
 These microorganism cause such things
as abdominal plain and diarrhoea.
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Parasites
• Require a living host for at least one
stage of their life cycle (reproduction)
• Can cause a variety of symptoms.
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STREET
FOOD
 2.5 billion people eat street
food every day across the world
Use of unfiltered water
contamination
 Poor hygienic conditions,
personal hygiene
 No access control
MITIGATION STRATERGY
 Maintenance of proper
cleaning and sanitation around
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VAISHNO DEVI
 Appx 30,000/- persons are
fed in a day
 ‘Shram Daan’: Any one can
be involved in cooking ,
cleaning activities, serving
etc.
No access controls
Religious faith involvement
Improper washing of
utensils
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TIRUPATI
Food Sabotage
 Appx 60,000/- persons are fed
free
 ‘Shram Daan’: Any one can be
involved in cooking, cleaning
activities
No access controls
Religious faith involvement
Contamination can occur due to
poor sanitation
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MID- DAY MEAL
Midday Meal Scheme is the popular name
for school meal programme in India which
started in the 1960s
Primary school children (6-14 years) form
about 20 per cent of the total population.
lunch/snacks/meal free of cost to school
children on school working days.
According to this scheme 13.6 million SC
children and 10.09 million ST girls in classes IV were to be covered in 15 states and 3 Union
Territories, where the enrolment of SC /ST girls
was less than 79 percent.
Rubbing the plates with soil followed by a
quick rinse after. consumption of food
Unclean uniform worn and floor where
children are made to sit to have their food.
Placing bare feet on the part-open lids of the
cooked food-cans while loading of the food-cans
in the tempos
MITIGATION STRATEGY
 Creating a fully computerized kitchen along
with machines for making 'chappati', vegetable
cutting and food packing.
 Training all the workers with respect to food
safety and personal hygiene.
 Proper storage of the raw materials to
prevent any kind of infestation.
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INDIAN WEDDING

Big fat functions with impressive menu
Involvement of large number of families and
friends
Serving of stale and chances of adulterated
food.
Preparation of food in unclean utensils.
 Poor personal hygiene of the individual
preparing and serving the food.
MITIGATION STRATEGY
 Caterers should be licensed only
Maintenance of good personal hygiene and
maintenance of the sanitary conditions in and
around the cooking & serving area.
 Authorization/licensing of the caterers to
avoid the consumption of contaminated food.
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FLIGHT CATERING
 Variety of Material & customers
to be catered
 Cold Chain is maintained
Centralized Kitchen
Cross –contamination may
occur
MITIGATION STRATEGY
 Security Checks while loading of vehicles from
kitchens
 Mis-handling at Transportation
Effective cold chain.
 Double security sealing mechanism
Avoiding stacking of the delivered food if its not in
a sealed box..
Access only to Only trained and identified food
handlers
Surveillance of raw materials and ready meals.
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POLITICAL PARTIES
 Cross country meetings
Religious functions like iftaar
party
Involvement of Political
personnel/ official delegates of
importance
MITIGATION STRATEGY
Authorization/licensing of the
caterers to avoid the
consumption of contaminated
food.
The materials is tested on
animals before it is served .
Access control for all staff.
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HOTEL/ RESTAURANTS
MITIGATION STRATEGY
 Large number and variety
Access controls at entry of kitchens
of customers ( domestic/
Police verification of all hotel staff
international)
and even vendors entering into the
premises
 Specialized Menu
 Scanning system for guest and food/
 Working round the clock
other commodities entering in the hotel
Cross-contamination
CCTV camera
Keeping the food at the right
occurs when fresh food is
temperature to avoid the "temperature
prepared or stored on the
danger zone."
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same surface as spoiledExport
food
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Food Testing
1. Testing: To do something in order to
discover that Food Product is safe, meets the
requirements of standard and implied needs
2. Analysis:
To study or examine Food
Product in detail to discover more about its
quality and safety
3. Inspection:
Look at Food Product including
label carefully that everything is correct and
legal
4. Sampling: A sample which is representative of
a lot/consignment
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Input
Output
Decision
• To a Laboratory is
• (Sample)
• Analytical Data
• (Test Report)
• Trade & Commerce (Import/Export)
• Safety (Environment/Research)
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REQUIREMENT OF Food Testing
 Estimated to be 10 folds by 2020
 Estimated 200 Lakhs Food Business
Operators in India
 Safe 3 Meals a day for over 1.2
Billions
 Critical Parameters: Environmental
Contaminants (Dioxins, PCBs, PAHs,)
Residues of antibiotics and its
Epimers, Pesticides and its Isomers.
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Targets to Ensure Food Safety
 Chemical Hazards
1. MRL
2. MRPL
 Biological Hazards
1. Limit Value (Hygiene/Safety Indicator)
2. Absent
 Physical Hazards
1. As per Regulation
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Target of an Analyst
By All Means:
Achieve the value of a constituent/
contaminant in a given Matrix
(as nearer as possible to the
Assigned/True Value)
to facilitate reliable decisions.
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History
pg/ml
‘90
‘70
‘60
‘50
'30
mass spectrometry
ng/ml
liquid chromatography
gas chromatrography
μg/ml
chromatography
spectrometry
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mg/ml
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Important to Achieve
”Win-Win” Situation
Improved food safety
Less illness, Less Medical and
Social costs and Less Poverty
Food trade access
International trade
capability
Safe national trade
Improved health
Improved participation in
national development
Overall
Development
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Thank You & Jai Hind
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Any
Export Inspection Council
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