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New Delhi : Underlining the importance of safe and quality food amidst the pandemic situation, Rita Teaotia, Chairperson, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), on April 20, 2021, said that the regulatory bodies need to be more vigilant to ensure food safety and quality.
Inaugurating the fifth session of the Codex Committee on Spices and Culinary Herbs (CCSCH) established under Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC), Rita Teaotia described the risk of unscrupulous and intentional adulteration of spices through substitution due to their high economic value. “This economically motivated adulteration is a major malpractice and we need to be extremely vigilant, particularly in the regulatory space to avoid such practices. It is important that we have harmonised Codex standards for spices products in global trade and this is a work that needs the highest priority to ensure the safety and quality of the spices and culinary herbs that are being traded across the world,” she said, according to a PIB release.
Delivering the opening note, D Sathiyan, Secretary, Spices Board, said: “CCSCH is proud to be the first Codex Commodity Committee to take the online route for its session and it is encouraging to note the active participation from member countries even in the midst of this Covid-19 pandemic situation. Given the large number of spices and culinary herbs waiting in the ranks for consideration by the committee, it was an obvious and logical choice to bring in ‘grouping of spices’ to cover more ground quickly.”
Addressing the delegates from the member countries, Guilherme da Costa Jr, Chair of Codex Alimentarius Commission, said, “ Figures on severe problems due to the lack of food safety control continue to cause thousands of food-borne illnesses, deaths, and rising unemployment every year, besides the economic crisis in different countries. It is essential and paramount to do our best – now in this new normal – to develop and disseminate Codex standards to ensure the safety and quality of food for everyone, everywhere, following the Sustainable Development Goals which are linked to the Codex mandate.”
To develop and expand worldwide standards for spices and culinary herbs, and to consult with other international organisations in the standards development process CCSCH was formed in 2013 with support of more than a hundred countries with India as the host country and Spices Board India as the Secretariat for organising the sessions of the committee. Since its inception, the Codex Committee on Spices and Culinary Herbs has been successful in developing harmonised global Codex standards for spices and herbs. In its past four sessions, the committee developed and finalised standard for four spices, viz. dried or dehydrated forms of black/white/green pepper, cumin, thyme, and garlic.
Set up in 1963, the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) is an inter-governmental body established jointly by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), within the framework of the Joint Food Standards Programme to protect the health of consumers and ensure fair practices in the food trade.