With an objective of enhancing the country’s capacity in the application of risk-based approach for food safety and aligning to WHO’s underlying theme of ‘Safer food, better health”, CHIFFS, a joint initiative of Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and Hindustan Unilever Ltd, had embarked on a mission to strengthen capacity building on risk assessment and promote science behind food safety since 2016. Over the years, CHIFSS has contributed to the Pan India capacity building process with Public-lectures, Roundtables, Hands-on-Trainings and more than a dozen Guidance documents and Training material including sector specific Sanitary and Good manufacturing & food safety practices, Food Microbiological Techniques for High-Risk Foods- Meat and poultry, General principles of Sampling for Microbiological Testing, Risk Assessment of Food Additives and Novel Foods/Ingredients and others.

In continuation to that effort, two Guidance documents developed by CHIFSS in collaboration with FSSAI, involving national experts, were released on 7th June 2022 by the Hon’ble Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, on the World Food Safety Day in New Delhi.

These were:

Guidance Document on Food Borne Disease Outbreak Investigation

The Guidance Document on Microbiological Process Control, Sampling and Testing of Fish and Fishery Products

Based on the premise that Food borne diseases emanating primarily from microorganisms in foods is a major public health burden and the need for a strong focus on epidemiology for designing robust strategies, CHIFSS has developed a comprehensive Guidance Document on Food Borne Disease Outbreak Investigation in collaboration with Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and national experts from NCDC, NIFTEM and AIIMS. The comprehensive document describes mechanisms for surveillance of food borne pathogens using a structured and coordinated approach. It is envisaged that the document will greatly facilitate the ongoing national efforts for a surveillance system in the country to effectively curb the impact of food borne diseases in India.

The Guidance Document on Microbiological Process Control, Sampling and Testing of Fish and Fishery Products was developed keeping in mind that Fish, a high value food, is strongly significant to India’s food security and economy and the microbiological safety encompassing the origin of supply and processing of fish assumes crucial importance for food safety. The document targeted at Food Business Operators, with a special focus on MSMEs will help enhance the expertise and capability on microbiological criteria and boost trade.

The World Food Safety Day program organized by FSSAI was also addressed by Hon’ble Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, Secretary (H&FW) Shri Rajesh Bhushan, CEO FSSAI -Shri Arun Singhal, Executive Officer FSSAI -Shri Rajiv Jain,  and Head of Regulatory Affairs, FSSAI- Shri R.K Mittal.

7 June 2022

New Delhi