Food Safety Index: FSSAI

Why in News?

On the occasion of World Food Safety Day, the Union Health Minister published Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI)’s 4th State Food Safety Index (SFSI) to assess the performance of States across five parameters of food safety.

What is the State Food Safety Index (SFSI)?

  • SFSI was initiated from 2018-19 with the goal of creating a competitive and positive change in the food safety ecosystem in the country.
  • The index was developed by FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) to evaluate the performance of states on 05 significant parameters of Food Safety.
  • The parameters comprise Human Resources and Institutional Data, Compliance, Food Testing–Infrastructure and Surveillance, Training & Capacity Building and Consumer Empowerment.
  • The index will assist in providing safe and nutritious food to our citizens.
  • The 1st State Food Safety Index for the year 2018-19 was announced on the first-ever World Food Safety Day on 7th June 2019.

Performance of various states-

  • Top state-Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
  • Among Smaller States- Goa stood first, followed by Manipur and Sikkim.
  • Among UTs- Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and Chandigarh.

World food safety day-

  • The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in collaboration with Member States and other relevant organizations, jointly facilitate the observance of World Food Safety Day,.
  • It was first celebrated in 2019, to reinforce the commitment to scale up food safety made by the Addis Ababa Conference and the Geneva Forum in 2019 under the umbrella of “The Future of Food Safety”.
  • The theme for this year food safety day was Safer Food, Better Health.

Initiatives launched on the Occasion-

  • Several innovative initiatives by the FSSAI, launched involves,
  • Eat Right Research Awards and Grants – Phase II
  • Eat Right Creativity Challenge – Phase III,
  • A school-level competition, and
  • The logo for Ayurveda Aahar.
  • This logo carries the initials of Ayurveda and Aahar with five leaves symbolising the five elements of nature, would be beneficial in building a unique identity for food products and in their easy identification.
  • A guidance document was released on Food Borne Disease Outbreak Investigation and Microbiological Process Control, and Sampling and Testing of Fish and Fishery Products.

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