Fssai Initiative For “Clean And Safe Meat”

With the growing population and income has led to an unrivalled increase in the consumption of meat and meat products in India. Most consumers now in India are eating fish, beef (Buffalo meat), mutton, goat, pig and poultry. This transition of diet for nutritional requirements in animal foods leads to use of antimicrobials and sacrificing hygiene practices at slaughter houses is a big challenge for FSSAI to provide safe and hygienic food.

To surmount this challenge Food Safety and Standards Authority of India is launching “Clean and safe meat” initiative with the objective of providing safe and clean meat to Indian consumers.

To bring back trust and surety among consumers, FSSAI organized a meeting of important stakeholders in Delhi, to discuss all aspects that affect the quality and safety of meat and meat products either directly or indirectly. Representatives from Ministry of food processing industry (MOFPI), Department of Animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries (DADF), Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), animal meat industry (Allana sons Ltd. and AOV Agro Foods Pvt. Ltd.), meat retail sectors (Grofers and Licious) poultry meat industry (Godrej Tyson Foods Ltd. and Venkys Pvt. Ltd.), and animal feed companies (Godrej Agrovet Ltd. and Suguna Poultry Farm Ltd.) attended the meeting.

Key Points/Issues Discussed in meeting Includes: –

• Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and Good Hygienic practices (GHP) in slaughter and meat processing units.
• Training of meat handlers
• Eligibility of FBO’s handling meat and meat products for obtaining FSSAI license
• Role of animal feed on meat quality
• Upcoming government schemes for upgradation of meat industry and especially the loopholes and unorganized sector

Action points for key stakeholders are mentioned below:

• Food Safety audit of meat units/ municipal slaughterhouses to be conducted in coming 3 months in 40 cities expanded by third party auditing agency. (Press release date was September 11, 2018)
• FSSAI will conduct mandatory food safety audits of the supply chain for e-commerce entities involved in retail of meat or meat products.
• Training and capacity building of FBO involved in this sector will be initiated by FSSAI under FoSTaC Programme and the training will be started in the month of September 2018, with a target of completing at least 50 trainings by the end of December 2018.
• BIS certification of feed – as one of the clauses in schedule 4 covering GHP and GMP requirements.
• BIS with the feed manufacturing associations and stakeholders, review and amend feed standards for livestock and poultry,
• FSSAI will form a steering group for “Clean & Safe Meat” that will have an overall responsibility for carrying out the activities in this campaign, including the preparation of guidance note for consumers on Fish / meat and feed.
• FSSAI will plan a study on the overall ecosystem in sectors of meat, fish, poultry and feed to identify the gaps / foods safety concerns and the ways to address them.
• Coordinate with State and central government to upgrade financial schemes in line with GMP and GHP requirements of FSSA, 2006, in meat sector, especially for small businesses for improving their hygiene practices
• This Campaign is a part of Lauh Yatra movement, to clean the slaughter houses and meat markets.

Stakeholders will participate in Lauh Yatra, covering 2000 locations in 40 cities.

In this way the entire loop covers quality of feed fed to animals to be slaughtered till the level it is consumed by direct supply or through online retail platforms.

 

References:-

Press Release: FSSAI LAUNCHES “CLEAN AND SAFE MEAT”. https://fssai.gov.in/dam/jcr…/Press_Release_Clean_Safe_Meat_11_09_2018.pdf . Accessed on 6^th February 2019.