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R&D & food safety focus of AIFPA’s national seminar on Aahar sidelines
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Thursday, 15 March, 2018, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Ashwani Maindola, New Delhi
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The All India Food Processors’ Association (AIFPA) conducted a day-long national seminar on research and development and food safety on the sidelines of Aahar, the international food and hospitality fair currently underway at New Delhi’s Pragati Maidan.
The objective of the consultative event was to bring the stakeholders together to deliberate on the issues which may require strategy/action plan(s) for the the development of food processing sector in the country through R&D activities and the food safety system.
Experts opined that the Indian food industry was in dire need of R&D activities, which are instrumental in the development of the food processing sector and its strengthening in the face of competition, which is inevitable in the coming years. They added that the Indian food industry needed to gear up and invest in R&D activities to create new and innovative food products and launch them successfully in the market to withstand the competition.
The experts stated that to reduce costs which lower the prices of products, enhance the sensory properties that make food more attractive and improve their nutritional value, to provide for dietary needs, to improve food safety convenience, and to offer greater choices of food items to consumers, the industry must enhance the R&D culture.
In his welcome address, S Jindal, president, AIFPA, said that these benefits came either from constant and gradual product improvement or significant changes in the product steps.
“The latter usually comes from new technology (crops, ingredients, processes or storage), but it can also come from a new understanding of consumer needs. R&D extends to the total food system and uses multi-disciplinary research because of the great diversity in the biological sciences and technologies having a scientific base for the food system,” he added.
Jindal elaborated that the end was always consumer satisfaction, which included not only the health and safety of the consumer, but also the environment and those who produced the food.
“The processing and manufacturing sections of the food industry include a few large and many small companies, i e companies of almost all sizes. While the ultimate aim of all their R&D is the same, their knowledge and resource bases may be very different,” he added.
“Small companies usually concentrate their R&D where they have strong specialist knowledge. A large company needs research in many areas and is faced with the problems of integrating the research and coordinating it with the company’s operating sections,” Jindal said.
“Companies of both sizes aim at effective product development and successful launching of new food products. It also becomes the responsibility of the government to encourage R&D in the food processing industry due three main reasons:- the protection of public health, the creation of wealth and the enhancement of scientific knowledge,” he added.
P L Kaul, past president, AIFPA, said that the reason for the industry to invest in R&D was that the world's food market was changing rapidly due to the rapid increase in world population and due to rapid developments in global science and technology.
“Consequently, food safety and food nutrition are becoming top priorities for consumers, and therefore, conventional approaches to systems for food safety and food security may no longer be effective for managing both newly-emerging food hazards and the chronic staple food crises,” he added.
“Organisations for management of food safety and food security share the responsibility for these objectives. Throughout the many processes that food undergoes, from farm to consumer, cooperation is crucial among organisations involved in the food production chain,” Kaul said.
India is recognised as one of the highest-ranking producers of various foods and agricultural products among developing countries and is capable of meeting the dietary needs of many countries around the world by exporting large quantities of processed food and agricultural products.
Ajit Kumar, former vice-president, National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM), stated, “R&D is fundamental in solving many food safety and food-nutrition problems in most countries.”
“R&D related to food safety and food nutrition is crucial in order to meet national and international standard requirements, remain competitive and maintain a leading world position in the production and export of agricultural food products,” he added.
“The government needs to provide sufficient grants to support private and public researchers in the various activities that R&D has focused on,” Kumar said.
He added that the keys to success in R&D of food safety and in the country were improvement of capacity-building, human resources and laboratory performance by skill development. And the industry needed to take this task on their own.
The government has launched financial assistance schemes for the development of capacity building in the R&D activities by providing assistance in setting up of and/or upgrading laboratories with funded programmes, high-performance instruments and the necessary equipment and facilities.
“Various stakeholders share responsibility for the system of managing food safety and undertaking research and development in the food sector,” Kumar said.
“To achieve the goal of being food bowl of the world by sufficiently producing safe and nutritious agricultural and food products, R&D will become a key source of public information about new technology, food safety and will promote dissemination of such information to all stakeholders,” he added.
“This will promote awareness about food safety increases capacity, equity and empowerment of all stakeholders, promotes the framing of policies and empowers systems for controlling food safety and R&D activities,” Kumar said.
Present on the occasion were Subhas Chand, former professor of biochemical engineering and biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, and Amit Dhanuka, past president, AIFPA.
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