Smart Moves
Foram Mehta discusses why Rapid Test Kits are looked
upon as innovative methods for ensuring quality in food
and beverages
India, with a large arable land and diverse
agro-climatic zones across the country, is
one of the world's largest producers of
food. It has tremendous production
advantages in agriculture, with the potential
to cultivate a range of agricultural products.
These natural advantages provide a large and
varied raw material base for food processing.
India is geographically proximate to the
growing economies of East Asia to the east
and the Middle East to the west. This offers
tremendous opportunities for increasing
exports of processed food products to these
markets. These advantages, if leveraged, can
transform India into a significant global player
in food products.
Today, the country is receiving
international attention from food processors
around the world as the food bowl of the
world and its total food production is likely to
double in the next 10 years. The current
lucrative and fast growing global market for
Indian foods is just the tip of the iceberg.
Global opportunities are expected to drive the
growth momentum of this sunrise sector.
However, the agricultural and food sector
faces several challenges, which hamper
realisation of our potential. For this, we need
to enhance the competitiveness of food
exports and meet global benchmarks on
environmental, regulatory, safety and usability
aspects for food exports. A holistic approach
to food safety and quality assurance is
required to meet the demands of globalisation.
Food safety and quality
assurance
Today, food safety concerns are best met with
an eye towards all aspects of production, that
is, from the farm to the consumer. Each step
and each stage of the food processing chain
should be controlled.
The food safety system requires
prevention, accountability, integration of
supply chains and risk management.
