Emphasis on Food Safety & Quality
in
Packaging and Transportation Value Chain

Dr. P Dasgupta, Head Packaging Development, Foods Hindustan Unilever Ltd. speaking at the programme	Dr (Mrs) Vijay Malik, Head (PCD) Bureau of Indian Standards speaking at the programme

Both food product supply and retailing which have acquired significant importance in the last few years, face the mounting challenges of safe and suitable packaging, sanitary transportation and hygienic storage. To strategically address Food Safety and Quality issues by adopting safe, quality and innovative packaging solutions along with sanitary and hygienic transportation practices, CII Institute of Quality (CII-IQ) organized a 2-day programme on Food Safety and Quality in Packaging and Transportation held on 23 -24 April in New Delhi. The objective of the programme was to provide insights to participants on the conceptual and practical aspects of Food Safety and Quality in Packaging, Transportation and Storage through interactive deliberations and specific exposition of relevant products.

Mr P Dasgupta, Head Packaging Development, Foods Hindustan Unilever Ltd, Bangalore emphasised that packaging was an integral part of food safety while addressing the session “An overview of Food Packaging – types, properties, applications, benefits, shelf life studies and testing”.

Earlier, Dr Indrani Ghose, Principal Councellor, CII-IQ welcoming all speakers, participants and exhibitors for the programme reiterated the growing importance of this vital component in the entire food chain. Participants benefited from the deliberation on various International and domestic regulations and the Indian standards on food packaging during the respective presentations by Mr Sukhdev Singh Saini, Packaging Development, GlaxoSmithKline Kline Ltd and Dr Vijay Malik, Head (PCD) Bureau of Indian Standards.

“To deliver Food Safety, Quality and convenience to consumers, several factors converge and plays important roles at each stage of the packaging value chain” explained by Mr P Govindanarayana ,Marketing Manager, DuPont Packaging and Industrial Polymer in his session “ Packaging solution for food Safety”.

While Active Packaging, Smart Packaging, Modified Atmospheric Packaging (MAP), Controlled Atmospheric Packaging (CAP) were some of the innovative packaging solutions for Food Safety and Quality explained by Mr Dipak Khedkar, Joint Director, Indian Institute of Packaging, Delhi , Mr T.K Datta, Specialty Valves spoke on Packaging Equipments and Machinery Overview in perspective to Food Safety and Quality.

Foods Safety by design and the impact of storage and transportation on food safety was explained by Ms Rinka Banerjee, Regional Technology Director, Foods, South Asia, Hindustan Unilever Research Centre, Bangalore using a case study of Vegetarian Mayonnaise in the retail chain.

Intermediate Bulk Containers (IBC), a Food Safety solution for the Food Industry was elaborated with benefits, types and cost implications by Mr Ashish Powari, Marketing Manager, Sealed Air Corporation. The role of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in providing solutions for Food Safety and Quality for Storage and Transportation was reiterated by Mr Yuvraj Rana, Pest Control of India Ltd.

While Cleaning and Sanitation as a priority for achieving Food Safety and Quality together with guidelines , factors and methodology needed for cleaning and hygiene during transportation was explained by Mr Vishal Ranjan, Area Sales Manager,F&B, Johnson Diversey India Pvt Ltd. Reefer transportation, an integral part of the cold chain, required to be further understood by the food handlers in order to achieve Food Safety and Quality of the produce being transported was emphasized by Mr Shivaprakash C H, Dy. General Manager, TCI Supply Chain Solutions while deliberating in his session on Innovation in food Handling, Storage and transportation.

More than 50 participants mostly senior and junior management personnel from the food industry, food processing, FMCG, packaging, food consultants and other related industries participated in the programme which was addressed by 11 speakers. Participation and active involvement of the participants in the programme through excellent and pertinent questions and answers made the programme highly interactive with many requests to hold similar programmes.

A special attraction of the programme was an exhibition by 6 Exhibitors (Hindustan Tin Works, Barflex Polyfilms, Jupitar Laminators, Pashupati Marketing, Pest Control of India Ltd and Lasersec (India) Pvt Ltd.) mostly from the packaging industries gave pertinent inputs to the delegates about their products and how it was catering to Food Safety and Quality. Participants took the advantage to interact with all the exhibitors about their product and services during these two days of the programme.