World Food Day Celebration
Interactive Session

In a subsequently held interactive session on Food Safety & Quality in Hotel Le Meridien, Mr V N Gaur, CEO, FSSAI (Food Safety Standard Authority of India) released the publication “CII – Food Safety Rating Matrix for Eateries” based of the draft FSSAI Criteria for Audit of Food Establishments.

“The Government of India had decided to celebrate 16th October as the Food Safety & Quality Day in India. In this regard the HRD ministry has written to the CBSE, UGC and associated institutions to undertake the requisite formalities, said Mr. K Rajeshwara Rao, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Government of India. He further added that maintaining food quality and standards was a continuous activity aiming at educating the stakeholders about the safety aspects associated with edible products. There was an urgent need to reach out to class II and III cities for observing food standards. He further informed that his ministry had undertaken consultation with religious boards like Vaishno Devi and Tirupathi to spread the message of food safety. He opined that issues of safe, hygienic and standard food should be carried forward as a multi-stake holder’s campaign.

  

CII- Food Safety Rating Matrix for Eateries (CFSRM)

Based on FSSAI’s draft “Criteria for Audit of Food Establishments”

As part of its initiative to facilitate Food establishment’s upgrade it’s Food Safety & Quality Standard, CII Institute of Quality has developed an e – enabled Food Safety Rating Matrix (CFSRM) based on the draft criteria developed by Food Safety Standards Authority (FSSAI) to carry out audits of Food Establishments.

The purpose of CII Food Safety Rating Matrix (CFSRM) is to assess the level of implementation and compliance of Food Safety & Quality category requirements of Food eateries. It will help food businesses identify the gaps and plan for attaining a higher standard of food hygiene and safety through adoption of good practices. The Rating Matrix facilitates rapid assessment against each criteria implying unique scoring system. It also captures the inadequacy against each criteria required to improve food Safety & Quality standards and serves as a tool for Self Assessment of the establishment .

For more details, please contact indrani.ghose@cii.in or k.debnath@cii.in

Mr Uttam Chatterjee, Chairman, CII Expert Group on Food Safety & Quality addressing the Interactive Session and the release of the “CII – Food Safety Rating Matrix for Eateries”. From left : Ms Meena Kapoor, Mr Rajeshwara Rao, Mr K N Shenoy, Mr V N Gaur, Mr Uttam Chatterjee and Mr Rakesh Kumar Tandon

Mr. V N Gaur stated that FSSAI in the backdrop of the upcoming Commonwealth Games was working on guidelines for food safety, checklist for food establishment operators and the criteria for audit of eateries. He presented a perspective on Food Security and Standards regime, the need for consumer awareness, low priority given to food standards, inadequate testing infrastructure among other related issues. 

Mr. Rajesh Kumar Tandon pointed out the need for creating national awareness on the sharing of best practices amongst the stakeholders as India prepared for the Commonwealth Games. He further added that around 25,000 food safety booklets and pamphlets had been distributed in Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains to mark World Food Day celebrations to further emphasise the cause.

 
Ms Meena Kapoor, Assistant Representative (Administrative), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, encouraged the global increase in official development assistances to curtail food crisis. She added that a series of fundamental problems in governance and administration had to be resolved in ensuring safe food for all. As the prices of staple food items had increased during the global financial crisis, she further stated that achieving food security in times of global crisis was indeed a global priority.
 
Mr. K N Shenoy, Chairman CII Institute of Quality outlined that the CII Institute of Quality was committed to aspects of quality in India across industry, services, manufacturing, healthcare, education and governance.  “Through this initiative we want to ensure that people maintain quality and standards at their respective environments and introduce innovative ways to ensure that food became a quality criterion for all” he added.

The releases of the “CII – Food Safety Rating Matrix for Eateries” during the World Food Day celebration.
 

Mr. Uttam Chatterjee, Chairman, CII Expert Group on Food Safety and Quality outlined how 36 cities through 44 programs across the nation would be celebrating the World Food Day in India. Approximately 70 thousand people would participate in this drive for quality, safety and standard food for all.  The thrust of such programs was to campaign that food was  free from any hazards; physical, chemical or microbiological.  

The World Food Day Celebrations  on 16 October were organized by CII to increase awareness about standards in Food Safety and Quality under the SCCP programme.The Standard Conformance and Cooperation Programme (SCCP) is aimed at improving access for Indian companies in the US market and vice versa by boosting cooperation on standards and conformance issues. To achieve this objective Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) have entered into a partnership to bring stakeholders in various industry sectors to harmonise the standards in the two countries.

Aim of the World Food Day Celebration
16th October, 2009

CII Institute of Quality with  the support of Ministry of Food Processing Industries ( MoFPI) embarked to  re-intensifying the Awareness Campaign on Food Safety & Quality by

  • Creating a  widespread Awareness on Food Safety and Quality across the country
  • Triggering  nationwide actions
  • Empower consumers, school and college students with the knowledge of the importance of Food Safety & Quality
  • Deliberate on a roadmap for Up-gradation of Food eateries in Delhi in view of the Commonwealth Games
  • Ensure a step towards India as a Safe Food destination
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