Food safety and quality have been gaining considerable importance at the national and international level as enhanced food safety is the key to improvements of health and nutrition. Food contaminants including toxins and additives, physical, chemical and biological hazards are huge health risk of the consumers. At present, the production and marketing of crop under high quality standards have become an important issues in India. Quality perception has been changing from production orientation to consumer-oriented concepts. Realizing the significance of safe food, “Food Safety Standard Act” was implemented in India in 2006 by the Government of India.
Food supply chains with geographically dispersed stakeholders require efficient and seamless track & trace systems. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO) always encourage the countries to harmonize their standards with those of CODEX Alimentarius Commission (CAC). The FAO came up with certain globally accepted control and compliance systems and standards for measures of food safety like Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), Traceability, etc. In many countries, farmers are yet to be familiar with these measures that can help them gain consumer trust and reputation in international market and also to avoid the non-tariff barriers set by World Trade Organization (WTO). Worldwide, consumers are willing to spend more on the fresh and safest food products and hence food supply chains need to build consumer trust. Today, product quality and food safety control have become basic trade conditions not only in European Union but also in South East Asian countries. Food safety (prevention of food borne diseases) and production quality (increased shelf life, improved texture, flavor and colour) can be controlled in supply chain by developing and implementing chain food safety and quality programmes. The most frequently used programmes to enhance food safety and quality fall into two categories: GAP and Sanitation & Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP). HACCP programmes specifically reduce food safety risks while GAP & sanitation are prerequisite programmes towards HACCP approach.
GAP are the practices that address environmental, economic and social sustainability for on-farm processes and result in safe and quality food and non-food agricultural products. GAP stands on four pillars namely economic viability, environmental sustainability, social acceptability and food safety and quality. In recent years, the concept of GAP has evolved to address the concerns of different stakeholders about food production and security, food safety and quality, and the environmental sustainability of agriculture. These stakeholders include governments, food retailing industries, farmers and consumers who seek to meet specific objectives of food safety, food production, production efficiency, livelihood and environmental benefits. GAP offers means to help reach those objectives. The objectives of GAP are ensuring food safety, capturing new market, judicious use of natural resources, maintaining worker health and welfare, income generation, enhancing international trade, risk assessment and building consumer confidence. Some of the key concepts are prevention of problems before they occur, risk assessment, commitment to food safety at all levels, mandatory employee education programme at the operational level, field & equipment sanitation, integrated pest management, communication throughout the production chain, verification through independent and third-party audits.
Appropriate promotion and adoption of GAP from farm to fork will help improve the safety and quality of food and agricultural products. In addition, producers and consumers will benefit from global markets and improve their livelihoods and the national economy as a whole. Implementation of GAP would also promote optimum utilization of resources such as pesticides, fertilizers, water and thus would help to promote sustainable and ecofriendly agriculture and contribute to meeting national and international environmental and social development objectives.
The major challenge in Indian context at present is creating awareness about these food safety measures and GAP among the farmers and other stakeholders. The compliance with food safety practices applicable at the farm level is not very encouraging. The adoption intensity of food safety practices varied from 0.42 in Bihar to 0.57 in Punjab. This implies that farmers are adopting only 42 to 57% of the food safety measures at the farm level. There are however, opportunities for further improvement of Indian agricultural producers through educating farming community as per their requirements. Training of producers in GAP at every level of the production chain and education of consumers are the key elements in reducing hazards associated with fresh fruits and vegetables. Small-scale farmers will not be able to access export market opportunities unless they are adequately informed, technically prepared and organized to meet the standards. Popularization of food safety measures and GAP and strengthening educational opportunities for the stakeholders are the immediate actions that need to be taken. In this context, a brief account of GAP is shared herewith on the following subjects:
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