Old Goa: With certified organic production at the minimal level in the country, the central agencies are optimistic that the Union Agriculture ministry’s participatory guarantee scheme will increase its percentage by bringing in more peer group farmers.
“The certified organic food production is still very low, it is just a few percentage,” Rita Teotia, Chairman, Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) told reporters at the sidelines of a conference in Goa on Monday.
She said that the the participatory guarantee scheme for certification by agriculture ministry brings together peer group of farmers and the costs are low and we are going to popularize it and it is increasing day by day,” she said.
Teotia was speaking to reporters at the sidelines of Sesssion of Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and World Health Organisation (WHO)
Coordinating Committee for Asia (CCASIA).
She said that many parts of India are naturally organic but they are yet to be certified.
“Like farmers in the North Eastern hilly states don’t use pesticides or fertilizers. So they are naturally organic,” she said.
“But from consumer point of view, when you are catering to nearby market it tends to go on trust but if you are catering to a market in the urban centers or long distances we need certain level of certification. So food safety authority has recognized certification under national program of organic production as well as farmers scheme run by agriculture ministry,” Teotia added.
“Under these schemes, the acreage under certified organic production is increasing rapidly now,” she said.
Speaking about percentage of unsafe food, she said that the data which is available from the testing of samples indicates that it is somewhere three to four percent.
“As per food safety standards around 3-4 per cent food is unsafe for consumption. There is more food which will not meet the standards but they are not unsafe. Our effort are to be more targeted,” she said.
Teotia said that the focus is on “surveillance of high priority items and under that area, the government have done national milk survey last year.”
“We are working on vegetables, oils and in future we will do spices. So our effort is to see that high risk products are getting more rigorous inspection,” she said.
