Macrae World Bank Consultant advises FSSAI for international engagements

In his recent media outing, Donald Macare, Senior Consultant, Regulatory Reform, World Bank Group, has recommended India’s apex food regulators, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to seek some international engagements with middle-income countries, such as China, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Vietnam, to further beef up its quality standards.

The apex food regulator, which is taking stock of the major food challenges and contentious issues faced by the country, had sought the advice on the Global Food Safety Partnership (GFSP) – a public-private initiative of the World Bank Group, on which Macrae is an expert – regarding the same.

Commenting on the same, Pawan Agarwal, CEO, FSSAI said, “This study was undertaken to understand the areas where India could engage with other countries. Also, it underlines how we can collaborate with the other countries and what could be the areas and subjects of the collaborations between the two sides,” Agarwal said, informing that India currently has a collaborative programme going on with the Netherlands on the antimicrobial resistance issue.

“And several such programmes will be identified along with countries to further up the food safety ecosystems,” he added. The report said most of the engagements FSSAI already had were with developed countries, including Canada, Germany, New Zealand and the United States.

Another reason for suggesting such engagements with middle-income countries was since these nations were also facing the similar concerns as India, but with help of their dedicated efforts and carving the right policies and norms they have successfully moved out of that plummet.

Picture Credit- Business Standard