More food items to be covered by origin-tracking system

Tag : fresh indian onion

"Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export DevelopmentAuthority (Apeda) will extend the traceability system to organicfoods, more fruits and other farm products by March 2009," Rameshtold reporters on the sidelines of a function here.

Apeda, having already put grapes under the traceability system,will now have mango, pomegranate, onion, basmati rice, honey,poultry, groundnut and organic products brought under the ambit ofquality control mechanism.

The minister said the new system would help importers to know thelevel of pesticide residue in processed foods or farm products, andtheir origin.

"The new quality monitoring mechanism will help Indian exporters inexpanding their market base across the world," he said.

The traceability system (as it is called) is a requirement ofimporters and aims at covering as many products as possible toensure their quality. It also offers details of a particularproduct online.

Apeda, India's official agency to monitor export of processed foodand farm products, introduced the traceability system in 2006 formonitoring fresh grapes exported from India to Europe.

India's export of fresh grapes crossed over Rs.301 million ($7.2million) in 2006-07 against Rs.214 million in 2005-06.

Ramesh launched a one-year post-graduate diploma course in foodsafety and quality management, a joint-initiative of Apeda andIndia's largest distance education provider - the Indira GandhiNational Open University (IGNOU).

"The programme aims at developing professionals for development,implementation and auditing of food safety and quality managementfor food processing sector in the country," Apeda director SanjayDave said.