Compliance with Food Safety Measures: Status, Determinants and Scope

Anjani KumarNational Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research (NCAP), New Delhi

Why Food Safety is becoming More Important

The increase in consumer demand for greaterfood safety;

Complex nature of food safety hazards;

Increasing globalization of agricultural markets:

Individual chain participants are increasinglylooking for safety of the products supplied by thepreceding chain participants;

Compliance with food safety measures affects thelevel of food safety of products.

Food Safety Legislation and Implementing Agency

Legislation Implementing agency

Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954

Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Food Processing, Ministry of Health

Meat Food Products Order, 1973

Ministry of Food Processing (up to 2004 Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture)

Milk and Milk Products Order, 1973 (last amended in 2002)

Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fishing, Ministry of Agriculture

Essential Commodities Act, 1955

State government agencies

Livestock Importation Act, 1898 (amended in 2001)

Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fishing, Ministry of Agriculture

Export (Quality Control and Inspection) Act, 1963

Exports Inspection Council, Ministry of Commerce and Industry

• Unified integrated food law;

• Food safety standards authority;

Measures for Food Safety Compliance for Export

• Export inspection council of India

– Quality control and pre-shipment inspection to ensureminimum standards

– 1000 products have been notified

– Export certification are mandatory for dairy, poultry, egg,meat and meat products

• System of export inspection and certification

– Consignment –wise inspection

– System based approach for in-process quality control

– Self-certification

– Food safety management system based certification

Certification

• For any of the following items, export certification is must.– Fish and fish products– Dairy products– Poultry– Eggs– Meat and meat products, and – Honey

Certificate is issued on the basis of inspection based on oFood safety management system based

certification

Issues

• Status of compliance with food safetymeasures;

• Cost of compliance with food safety measures;

• Factors for greater compliance with foodsafety measures;

• Relationship between compliance andproducer prices.

Extent of Compliance with Food Safety Measures

3639 40 41

45

40

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Landless Marginal Small Medium Large All

Status of Compliance with Food Safety Measures

Class Dairying Fisheries

Landless 3.0 -

Marginal 2.6 -

Small 2.1 10.4

Medium 1.7 7.2

Large 1.6 5.2

All 2.0 6.8

Determinants of Compliance with Food Safety Measures

Explanatory variables

Equation 1 Equation 2

CoefficientStandard

ErrorCoefficient

Standard

Error

Age (yrs) 0.049** 0.023 0.046** 0.024

Education (yrs) 0.300*** 0.064 0.277*** 0.066

Herd-size (no.) 0.932*** 0.124 0.886*** 0.129

Milk price (Rs. per litre) 0.312*** 0.121 0.552*** 0.112

Milk sold to formal buyers (% of total sale) 0.057*** 0.007 - -

Member dairy Co-operatives (if yes=1, 0

otherwise)- - 4.678*** 0.721

Constant 27.008*** 2.047 25.123*** 2.047

R-squared 0.366 0.337

No. of observation 422 422

Determinants of Milk Prices

Explanatory variables CoefficientStandard

Error

Education (yrs.) -0.020 0.026

Milk sold (Litre per day) -0.027*** 0.011

Food Safety Index 0.035* 0.019

Type of buyer (Formal=1, otherwise=0) 1.624*** 0.477

Contract with buyer (Yes=1, otherwise=0) 0.189 0.359

Place of milk sale (farm=1, otherwise=0) -1.380*** 0.421

Constant 12.343*** 0.850

R-squared 0.315

No. of observation 422

Strategies for Food Safety Measures

• Market access;

• Benefits exceeding costs;

• Long-term competitiveness;

• Social inclusion/exclusion;

• Spillover effects.

Challenges of Food Safety Measures in Indian Agriculture

• Absolute barriers or binding constraints for accessing

particular markets;

• Temporary losses due to rejected (and sometimes

destroyed) consignments;

• Higher consignment-specific or recurrent transaction

costs;

• Patterns of “defensive commercialization”;

• Harnessing opportunities for greater price realization.

Conclusions and Policy Implications

• The compliance with food safety measures are encouraging

but lot of efforts are needed to achieve the desired level;

• The drivers for ensuring greater compliance with food safety

measures have been identified;

• The higher price incentives along with awareness and skills

up-gradation are the keys for improvement in the compliance

with food safety measures;

• Encouragement of vertical integration with formal

organizations will also improve the compliance status of food

safety measures.

THANK YOU