Food Safety Enforcement – The Government Responsibility

According to the Codex Alimentarius Commission of the United Nations, a food is regarded as safe “If it doesn’t cause harm to the consumer when prepared and/or eaten according to its intended use”. This entails that food should be free from contaminants, adulterants, naturally occurring toxins and all those substances which might have adverse effects on human health. Right from the earliest days of human existence, access to good quality food, in particular safe food has been one of the most pressing and critical questions for the mankind. Through centuries of ignorance, experience and trial-and-error methodology, we have learnt that safe food is not just a fundamental precondition for human survival but is also inherently and indispensably linked with social, economic and ethical facets of our lives. Today, nations all around the world acknowledge that without surety of the safe food, prosperity in its collective sense is a far cry. Based on such concrete conclusions, it is now of utmost importance that we augment our understanding regarding the current world scenario and re-evaluate our strategic approach that will be required to unknot the complexities of providing safer and healthier food to every human being in the world.

Over the last few decades, the question of ensuring adequate food safety standards has evolved into a much more complicated problem with a series of interconnected factors to be considered.