The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee today (December 12, 2012) inaugurated the National Seminar on 'Food Safety - Role of Standards' organized by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.

Speaking on the occasion, the President said that globalization of the world economy has given a significant boost to food trade and resulted in a paradigm shift in food consumption patterns, production methods and processing technologies. But at the same time, there is a new risk of faster trans-boundary transfer of microbiological and chemical hazards, he said. He stated that this presents a new set of challenges to food safety and these potential risks require robust preventive and curative capacities to be put in place to safeguard the health of our population.

The President said that the challenge of meeting the ever growing food requirement of our population calls for major investments and innovation in our agriculture, agri-business and food processing sectors. While up-gradation of suitable technology is essential, safe farming practices, modern breeding techniques should go hand in hand with food related research, duly concentrating on how food safety should be regulated under Indian climatic and other relevant physical and cultural conditions. The Bureau of Indian Standards has an increasingly important role in this effort, he said.

The President also received the first copy of book 'Indian Standard Street Food Vendors - Food Safety Requirements' on the occasion.

Prof KV Thomas, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Prof M.S. Swaminathan, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, Shri Pankaj Agrawala, Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs and Shri Afzal Amanullah, Director General, Bureau of India Standards were also present on the occasion.

This release issued at 1315 hrs