The India Food Safety Conclave 2023: A success story

Indian food industry is poised to grow 6% every year, and in this scenario, food safety plays a crucial role. According to WHO report, 16,00,000 people get sick due to unsafe food every day in the world. Taking this in consideration, Food Safety Works, a leading food safety consultant and knowledge partner envisoned India Food Safety Conclave 2023.

The first edition of India Food Safety Conclave 2023 with a theme of ‘Connecting India for Safer Food’ was a great success with 140+ delegates attending the event. The conclave, which was held on June 23 , 2023 at the Hotel Royal Orchid in Bangalore, focused on the latest trends in food safety and how to ensure safe food for consumers.

This conclave featured range of incredible speakers including Dr. Sridevi Annapoorna Singh, director CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore, Dr. Sanu Jacob, director FSSAI, National Food Laboratory and Sarika Agarwal, managing director, Food Safety Works.

In her inaugural speech, Dr. Sridevi Annapoorna Singh shared her views on the physical, chemical, and biological aspects of food safety. In addition to this, she also unfolded how technological advances improves various factors affecting food safety and measures its effectiveness. Joining her with the global perspective on food regulations and India story, Dr. Sanu Jacob quoted about the transparent traceability system from farm to fork, and how data driven blockchain verification system can change the game of lowering down the risk of food frauds. Addition to this, he also shared his views on strengthening a laboratory network in India.

The first segment focusing on ‘Food Safety Management System- Stepping Stone to Good Food safety Culture’ revealed the significance of training, strong reporting practices and digitalization of auditing system in building better food safety culture. The discussion was led by Sarika Agarwal, managing director of Food Safety Works. Joining her in a discussion was Prakash Mylar, associate general manager- QA & EHS, MTR Foods, Ramesh Mallegowda, director- Quality Assurance, Herbalife and Benz Thomas, regional head, BRCGS.

Deliberating on ‘Innovations in Packaging- Approaches to Improved Food Safety’ was Dr. Shashikanth Kunigal, ex-corporate quality head, Britannia along with Dr. Arunkumar Panneerselvam, principal scientist, Department of Food Packaging Technology, CSIR-CFTRI, Mysore, Rahul Choudhary, packaging category manager, Britannia, and Rajesh K, chief quality and sustainability officer, Licious stated how smart packaging and intelligent sensors built packaging system will enhance the food safety of packaged food products.

While unboxing the ‘Testing, Verification & Validation’ aspects of food safety, a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Lalitha R. Gowda, with Shrinivas Joshi, president AOAC International-India, Shashi Kumar, founder and chief executive officer, Akshayakalpa and Dr. Indranil Chatterjee, application scientist, Thermo Fisher Scientific casted light on food frauds and authentication and how advanced testing and verification systems can be beneficial for businesses along with the consumers.

The last interactive session concluded with ‘Food Regulations & Labelling’ aspect of food safety by describing the role and impact of regulatory bodies over food safety and how India can be a country with high food safety index in coming years. The discussion was headed by Dr. Balkumar Marthi, dean Innovation & Entrepreneurship, GITAM University with Dr. D. B. A. Narayana, chief scientific officer, Ayurvidye Trust, Nupur Agarrwal, assistant manager Nutrition Sciences, ITC and Sunil Adsule, assistant vice president, Regulatory Affairs Food & HPC, Reliance Retail.

The conclave also featured a networking lunch, which gave delegates the opportunity to meet with other professionals and share ideas.

“The India Food Safety Conclave 2023 was a huge achievement,” said Ramesh Agarwal, chief executive officer, Food Safety Works. “We were pleased to see so many people attend the event, and participate in the conversations actively, and we are confident that these discussions will help to improve the food safety in India. We are looking forward to the next chapter of the India Food Safety Conclave 2024.”