Food Safety and Food Science

Unlike the previous act which talked only about adulteration the recent regulations/act has seen a paradigm shift which takes into consideration Food Safety and Food Science starting from the very definition of ‘Food’. It defines even the water used in the Food Processing as ‘Food’. This water may be used as ingredient or for washing utensils – Water needs to be potable. The act also defines ‘Food Business’ in a scientific way from Farm to Fork. It means any undertaking, whether for profit or not and whether public or private, carrying out any of the activities related to any stage of manufacture, processing, packaging, storage, transportation, distribution of food, import and includes food services, catering services, sale of food or food ingredients.

The regulatory requirement takes safety and science into consideration right from applying for a license to maintaining the license for successful operations of our Food Businesses. Annexure 2 of Schedule 2 of Regulations requires Chemical & Bacteriological analysis of water used in food process. In addition to this, water needs to be checked for pesticide residues in case of bottled water & beverages.

Annexure 3 of Schedule 2 of Regulations inculcates the basic principles of Science to maintain the license during the course of its Food Business.

1. Clause 4 Technical person to supervise the production process.
2. Clause 7 Maintain GMP & GHP as per Schedule 4 of the regulation.
3. Clause 9 Ensure raw materials are of optimum quality.
4. Clause 11 Ensure CIP
5. Clause 12 Ensure testing of Chemical / Microbiological contaminants in food products atleast once in six months (based on Historical Data & Risk assessment)

Challenges

First is to convince the FBO that analysis of their food products is not a paper work but a scientific approach to secure safety of their customer and their businesses. Do not do analysis for sake of it as I consider – analysis analysis leads to paralysis.

Have a targeted risk based approach towards testing – Nutritional parameters, Pesticide / Heavy metal residues, adulterants and finally pathogen analysis more important for high risk Foods.

We need think – Analysis and Beyond…

Mantra for Success

There is no single mantra for success. But I would only say Analytical testing is a smart investment and Timely Testing is must for Tasty Times.

Dr Nilesh S Amritkar
Envirocare Labs Pvt Ltd, NABL, FSSAI and BIS recognized Lab