Bangalore: While food safety laws can be strict to protect public health, any changes should be subject to prior public hearings and expert opinion, U.S. attorney Linda Horton said here Tuesday. She was consultant to the US FDA for 33 years.

Speaking at the Confederation of Indian Industry's seminar on food safety, Ms. Horton referred to the need for Indian exporters of processed foods to be aware of international laws and acceptable food standards. "The FDA laws and standards are available on the Internet," she said.

She was gratified that India too had enacted laws, which prevented adulteration and prescribed hygiene standards in the food processing industry.

Because most fishermen and farm workers were likely to be poorly educated or even illiterate, audiovisual training modules in local languages could be shown to them and the FDA would help in this regard, Ms. Horton said. Even in the U.S., this was done because many farmers in States like California understood only Spanish.

"Food safety has become more important now because of free trade in processed food articles between countries.

While the U.S. has laws applicable for almost all States, the European Union is evolving a common law for member countries.

Even from the point of view of farmers, livestock keepers and fishermen, food safety is desirable because new markets can be found," she said.

Agriculture attaché from the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi Gerland H. Smith said the seminar was a joint effort of the CII and the U.S. Department of Agriculture under the US-India Agriculture Knowledge Initiative signed last year by U.S. President George Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"The US Department of Agriculture has been collaborating for many years with the Indian Council for Agricultural Research," he said.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail