The Post-Harvest Technology section of the Fisheries, Resources, Harvest and Post-Harvest Division (FRHPHM) at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Central Institute of Fisheries Education (ICAR-CIFE), Mumbai organized a World Food Safety Day event on 7 June. The National Agricultural Higher Education Project (NAHEP) sponsored the programme.

The events included a hybrid mode National Webinar on “Pertinent Issues in Food Safety and Hygiene” conducted by Dr Indrani Karunasagar, Director of Projects and Department of Science and Technology-Technology Enabling Centre (DST-TEC), Nitte University, Mangalore, and an educational exhibition-cum-demo on food safety issues, detection of adulterants and contaminants in foods and safe food practices.

In the webinar, Dr Karunasagar emphasized the significance of food safety, including seafood, common contaminants present in foods, and ways to avoid such contamination. She also elaborated on different types of foodborne illnesses, as well as case studies and epidemiological details. Over 150 registered participants attended the webinar.

This was followed by the educational exhibition, which was inaugurated by the Director and Vice-Chancellor, Dr C.N. Ravishankar, in the presence of Dr N.P. Sahu, Joint Director. More than 250 visitors attended the exhibition-cum-demo, which included posters on common foodborne illnesses, outbreaks associated with foodborne diseases, unsafe foods to be avoided, chemical contaminants in foods, safety of food processing methods and packaging materials, and good hygiene practices to be followed to prevent contamination and foodborne disease outbreaks.

For the demonstration, simple tests for detecting adulterants in everyday foods such as milk, ghee, honey and artificially ripened fruits and the models that displayed unsafe street foods were arranged. The exhibition was attended by students, scientific, technical, administrative staff, and the public. Dr B.B. Nayak, Head of the FRHPHM Division, Dr Sanath Kumar, Principal Scientist and Dr Manjusha L., Senior Scientist, coordinated the World Food Safety Day events at ICAR-CIFE.

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World Food Safety Day events this year

Photo © ICAR-CIFE