19 January 2023
The 13th CII Food Safety Awards Ceremony was organised on 19th January 2023 to recognize role models and best in class food business operators on food safety excellence and provide a framework for continual improvement.
The glittering Award Ceremony was organized in The Lalit Hotel, New Delhi on 19th January 2023. Mr Ganji Kamala Vardhana Rao, IAS, CEO, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) graced the grand occasion and gave away the awards. He was joined by Mr. Steve Wearne, Chairperson Codex Alimentarius Commission.
We are fortunate to be a nation with surplus food produced due to our geographical position. It is of importance to ensure access of safe and hygienic foods assumes prime importance and ensuring access to safe foods to the poor and vulnerable. Capacity building in rural areas, promoting awareness through creation of health clubs in schools, strengthening food testing and analytical laboratories will be important to assure safe foods for our future generation’ said Mr G Kamala Vardhana Rao in his keynote address. He congratulated all participants, winners and CII for the food safety awards.
Mr. Steve Wearne, Chairperson, Codex Alimentarius Commission said that Food safety involves strong commitment, resources, tools, and leadership-the Food safety award is an excellent platform for achieving this by practically assessing the organizations in a way of identifying their gaps, look for opportunities, according to appropriate solutions, rewarding the successful FBOs for developing a continuous process of improvement. These are crucial to motivate the food business operators and stimulate the food safety culture.
Mr. G Swaminathan, CEO. GSI India and jury emphasized that use of digitization approach in food safety has been a hallmark of the food industries this year and is commendable. A complete visibility using digitization (blockchain, IoT etc.) can be crucial for ensuring enhanced traceability of food, consumer trust and business, reduce food wastage and create a digital food passport.
Mr. Pankaj Mehta, Co-Chairman CII Task Force on Post Harvest & Logistics & MD Carrier Transicold mentioned that consumer preferences are changing rapidly, leading to more focus on food safety, in this respect, the CII FSQ awards is a continuous engagement towards improving food businesses through recognizing excellence.
Eleven sectors including the Beverages, Dairy Products, Fats and Oils, Health Supplements and Nutraceuticals, Food Testing Laboratories, Meat and Meat Products, Ready to Cook (RTC), Ready to Eat (RTE), Partnership for Food Safety Excellence: Joint Application, Coffee, Tea qualified for the Awards with Outstanding Performance in Food Safety 2022.
Other well deserving applicant units nominated by the Jury were awarded with Certificates of Significant Achievements, Strong Commitment and Letters of Appreciation for their appreciable efforts in food safety.
More than 130 qualified assessors from a pool of 700 plus assessors were involved in assessments for the Awards which was conducted virtually this year. The Award follows a stringent 4 stage evaluation methodology comprising of technical assessment by trained food professionals, calibration by sector specific calibrators and subsequent evaluations by the Awards Committee and a final round of evaluation by a distinguished panel of Jury. More than 100 man hours are spent on the assessment of each unit.
The eminent Jury panel included:
Dr. Chindi Vasudevappa
Chair, Jury, CII Award for Food Safety, Vice Chancellor, NIFTEM (under Ministry of Food Processing Industry)
Dr Nimish Shah
Chairperson Expert Group on Food Safety and Quality and Pre Jury CII Award for Food Safety ,Managing Director, IAPMO
Dr Kaushik Banerjee
Director, ICAR-National Research Centre for Grapes
Chairman India Section AOAC International
S Swaminathan
CEO, Indian operations, GS1
The list of winners is provided below:
Winners: Outstanding Performance on Food Safety 2022
1
Beverages
ITC Ltd, Kapurthala
2
Coffee
Tata Coffee Vietnam Company Ltd,
Vietnam
3
Dairy Products
Hindustan Unilever Ltd, Nashik
4
Fats and Oils
Adani Wilmar Ltd, Hazira, Surat
5
Health Supplements & Nutraceuticals
Tirupati Wellness Pvt. Ltd, Sirmaur
6
Partnership for Food Safety Excellence:
Joint Application
Herbalife International India Pvt. Ltd. Zeon Lifesciences Ltd. - Healthcare 2,
Paonta Sahib
7
Food Testing Laboratories
SGS India Pvt. Ltd, Chennai
8
Meat and Meat Products
Shanthi Feeds Pvt. Ltd, Coimbatore
9
Ready To Cook
Asandas and Sons Pvt. Ltd, Mehsana
10
Ready To Eat
Vista Processed Foods Pvt. Ltd, Sirhind
11
Tea
Tata Consumer Products Ltd, Gopalpur