Experts dwell on food safety issues at workshop

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 23

The department of food science at the MCM DAV College for Women organised a workshop on ‘Awareness Generation and Dissemination of Knowledge and Skills about Recent Advances in Nutrition and Food Safety’ today. The workshop was organised in collaboration with the Department of Community Medicine, School of Public Health, PGIMER, Chandigarh.

The objective of the workshop was to generate awareness about issues pertaining to food safety so as to help in the prevention of potential health hazards and sensitise people about recent advances in the field.

Citing the fact that 21 per cent of the communicable diseases in the country are food or water related, Chief guest Prof Sanjay Chhibber, Department of Microbiology, PU, in the inaugural address, stressed upon the need to develop robust microbiological food safety measures and the imperativeness of involvement of all stakeholders, including manufacturers, regulators, public health agencies, allied agencies and consumers in ensuring food safety.

Prof Amarjeet Singh, Department of Community Medicine, PGIMER, gave an overview of the objective of the workshop and highlighted the importance of research in combating the contamination of food right from the farm to the table. Guest of Honour Sukhwinder Singh, designated officer, Food Safety Cell, Chandigarh, apprised the audience of the Food Fortification and Food Safety initiatives by the Chandigarh Administration and also held a highly informative session on Food Adulterants Detection. Dr Sukhpal Kaur, National Institute of Nursing Education, Chandigarh, spoke on ‘Food Safety: Definition/Concepts/Problem Statement, Types and Gaps’.

‘The Recent Advances: Use of IT in Food Safety; Concept of Traceability; Safety of GM Food’ was discussed by Dr Jayanti Dutta Roy, Deputy Director, HRD Centre, PU. Lt Col Kumar Pushkar shed light on safe street food. A short film on standard operating procedures for food safety in eating establishments titled ‘Farm to Fork’ and another on food adulterants detection kits were also showcased during the event.

A mobile food testing van of the Chandigarh Administration analysed food samples brought by staff and students.

A quiz on food safety was also organised on the occasion.

Congratulating the Food Science Department for taking up the pertinent issue of food safety, Principal Dr Nisha Bhargava emphasised the need for education and training at every step, right from production to supply to conumption for ensuring better quality of food with high nutritional value.