The need of the hour is product innovation by both Pharmaceutical as well as Food industry. With this background, The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) conducted 3rd National Symposium on ‘Nutraceuticals’ recently in New Delhi.

Pawan Agarwal, CEO, FSSAI; J.P. Meena, secretary, Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) and various stakeholders from the industry were present in the event.

Pawan Agarwal said, “The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is in the process of addressing concerns raised by the industry on new standards for eight categories of products, including health supplements and nutraceuticals notified last year”

“I am taking this opportunity to reassure the industry here that if there are concerns with the standards we have released, we are still open to changing those standards, making provisions to address the concerns that you have. We have received 5-6 representations, of course it has to go through a process, we are in the process of doing so,” he said.

“These standards will come into force for compliance from January 1, 2018 so we have a little time at hand before these come into compliance and hopefully we will be able to iron out those differences and concerns which will be addressed within the next 5-6 months that we have,” added Agarwal.

 “There are associated standards and regulations, and the key amongst them being labelling regulations, claim regulations for which again the draft will soon be available on our website and we will be very happy to get feedback from the industry on those drafts,” he said.

He said that these are also quite contentious issues considering that consumers’ interest for any regulator is primary. “I think that is non-negotiable. So any food supplement manufacturer giving any kinds of claims, has to be extra cautious and as a regulator we have to ensure that those claims are substantiated with evidence.”

On the labelling, he said there may not be too many issues. He however added that FSSAI has been getting reports from the field that increasingly large numbers of spurious products are available in the market today.

“The challenge with the food supplements is that there is no robust framework for testing of food supplements products. There are also issue about good manufacturing practices around food supplements and nutraceuticals sectors,” said the FSSAI chief.

In his address at the ASSOCHAM conference, Mr J.P. Meena, secretary, Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) stressed upon the need to make the food supplements and nutraceuticals affordable as about 43 per cent children across India remain malnourished while the sector mainly caters to the middle and upper-middle class consumers.

Noting the various challenges being faced by the sector like the need to gain public confidence and questions raised as to whether the claims being made the manufacturers are evidence-based, he said, “Attempts are being made to remove these constraints but I think the industry has to walk a lot of distance to make it a popular product, more so when health awareness is on the rise about processed foods, the traceability will become paramount.”

He also informed that MoFPI has particularly being focusing on making farmers/growers partners in the growth story of food processing sector.

 “Unless the benefits to some extent are passed on to the farmers, I see that the future of industry will not be very stable and we may not be able to face challenges which will emerge in the future on account of health concerns. Sooner or later traceability is going to be an issue and everybody who is there in the food business may be required to have certification on this issue and there lies actually the tie-up with the farmers,” he added.

He also informed that with regards to capacity expansion and creating new capacities, MoFPI has come out with a new scheme, ‘Kisan Sampada,’ whereby government will be investing Rs 6,000 crore over next three years which should bring an investment of about Rs 35,000 crore in the food processing sector as a whole.

The need of the hour is product innovation by both Pharmaceutical as well as Food industry. With this background, The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) conducted 3rd National Symposium on ‘Nutraceuticals’ recently in New Delhi.

Pawan Agarwal, CEO, FSSAI; J.P. Meena, secretary, Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) and various stakeholders from the industry were present in the event.

Pawan Agarwal said, “The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is in the process of addressing concerns raised by the industry on new standards for eight categories of products, including health supplements and nutraceuticals notified last year”

“I am taking this opportunity to reassure the industry here that if there are concerns with the standards we have released, we are still open to changing those standards, making provisions to address the concerns that you have. We have received 5-6 representations, of course it has to go through a process, we are in the process of doing so,” he said.

“These standards will come into force for compliance from January 1, 2018 so we have a little time at hand before these come into compliance and hopefully we will be able to iron out those differences and concerns which will be addressed within the next 5-6 months that we have,” added Agarwal.

 “There are associated standards and regulations, and the key amongst them being labelling regulations, claim regulations for which again the draft will soon be available on our website and we will be very happy to get feedback from the industry on those drafts,” he said.

He said that these are also quite contentious issues considering that consumers’ interest for any regulator is primary. “I think that is non-negotiable. So any food supplement manufacturer giving any kinds of claims, has to be extra cautious and as a regulator we have to ensure that those claims are substantiated with evidence.”

On the labelling, he said there may not be too many issues. He however added that FSSAI has been getting reports from the field that increasingly large numbers of spurious products are available in the market today.

“The challenge with the food supplements is that there is no robust framework for testing of food supplements products. There are also issue about good manufacturing practices around food supplements and nutraceuticals sectors,” said the FSSAI chief.

In his address at the ASSOCHAM conference, Mr J.P. Meena, secretary, Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) stressed upon the need to make the food supplements and nutraceuticals affordable as about 43 per cent children across India remain malnourished while the sector mainly caters to the middle and upper-middle class consumers.

Noting the various challenges being faced by the sector like the need to gain public confidence and questions raised as to whether the claims being made the manufacturers are evidence-based, he said, “Attempts are being made to remove these constraints but I think the industry has to walk a lot of distance to make it a popular product, more so when health awareness is on the rise about processed foods, the traceability will become paramount.”

He also informed that MoFPI has particularly being focusing on making farmers/growers partners in the growth story of food processing sector.

 “Unless the benefits to some extent are passed on to the farmers, I see that the future of industry will not be very stable and we may not be able to face challenges which will emerge in the future on account of health concerns. Sooner or later traceability is going to be an issue and everybody who is there in the food business may be required to have certification on this issue and there lies actually the tie-up with the farmers,” he added.

He also informed that with regards to capacity expansion and creating new capacities, MoFPI has come out with a new scheme, ‘Kisan Sampada,’ whereby government will be investing Rs 6,000 crore over next three years which should bring an investment of about Rs 35,000 crore in the food processing sector as a whole.