State Food Safety Index: FSSAI
- Posted By
10Pointer
- Categories
Polity & Governance
- Published
22nd Sep, 2021
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Context
3rd State Food Safety Index (SFSI) of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has been recently released.
About State Food Safety Index
- The index is developed by FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) to measure the performance of states on five significant parameters of Food Safety.
- Five parameters of food safety:
- human resources and institutional data
- compliance
- food testing facility
- training
- capacity building besides consumer empowerment
- The first State Food Safety Index for the year 2018-19 was announced on the first-ever World Food Safety Day on 7th June 2019.
States ranking in the Index
- Larger states: Gujarat was the top ranking state, followed by Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
- Smaller states: Goa stood first followed by Meghalaya and Manipur.
- UTs: Jammu & Kashmir, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and New Delhi secured top ranks.
Significance of food safety
- Food safety helps to protect consumers from the risk of food borne illnesses.
Food borne illnesses
- Food borne illnesses are usually infectious or toxic in nature.
- They are caused by bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical substances entering the body through contaminated food or water.
- An estimated 4,20,000 people around the world die every year after eating contaminated food and children under 5 years of age carry 40% of the foodborne disease burden, with 1,25, 000 deaths every year.
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- It also helps to prevent consumers from risks of health –related conditions such as allergy and even death.
- It also protects food processing establishments from product recalls which results in financial losses due to unsafe products.
Important facts
- World Food Safety Day is observed on June 7.
- In India, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is the apex food safety body.
- In October 2016, FSSAI operationalized Food Safety and Standards (Fortification of Foods) Regulations, 2016 to fortify staples, to reduce the high burden of micronutrient malnutrition, namely
- Wheat Flour and Rice (by Iron, Vitamin B12, and Folic Acid)
- Milk and Edible Oil (by Vitamins A and D)
- Double Fortified Salt (through Iodine and Iron)
- ‘+F’ logo has been notified for the identification of fortified foods.
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