A step forward in addressing challenges surrounding honey industry in India
The India Honey Alliance (IHA) and National Institute of Food Technology & Entrepreneurship Management (NIFTEM) have collaborated with an aim to strengthen the creation of a robust honey ecosystem in India. The agreement includes identification and mutual collaboration in the areas of testing systems for honey, research and data analysis, training facilitation and any emerging areas in the related fields.
Both the organisations will work together to create scientific systems in terms of food safety, nutrition for honey and bee-keeping products across the country. NIFTEM has recently got the tag of Institute of National Importance and will use their academic training centre to train the bee-keeping and honey community and food business operators (FBOs), along with assisting in the creation of a robust scientific ecosystem for all related products.
Additionally, the International Centre of Excellence in Food Safety & Quality at NIFTEM would also function as a National Reference Laboratory of IHA in the chosen area of competence for the purpose of honey authenticity, method development, proficiency testing etc. NIFTEM will also function as the academic partner of IHA for developing the content and conducting the training,for all areas of the honey value chain, through a joint certification programme.
The NIFTEM facilities would be utilised by IHA as the Centre for Training of Trainers (ToT) in various hands-on-training courses, food analysts and other laboratory personnel; and, as a training partner for various courses and modules as mutually agreed. One of the most important goals of this partnership is to develop an adequate number of trained and certified honey & bee-keeping professionals for the country’s honey industry. Further, IHA will also assist NIFTEM in setting up the bee-keeping park in NIFTEM through utilisation of available resources.
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