FSSAI's State Food Safety Index 2021

Table of Contents

State Food Safety Index- Relevance for UPSC Exam

GS Paper 2: Governance, Administration and Challenges– Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Recently, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare released the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI)’s 3rd State Food Safety Index (SFSI) to measure the performance of States across five parameters of food safety.
- 19 Mobile Food Testing Vans (Food Safety on Wheels) have also been flagged off to supplement the food safety ecosystem across the country.

About: Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has developed State Food Safety Index to measure the performance of states on various parameters of Food Safety.
- The first State Food Safety Index for the year 2018-19 was announced on the first-ever World Food Safety Day on 7th June 2019.
Key Objective: to galvanize States to work towards ensuring safe food for citizens.
Parameters used for Ranking: State Food Safety Index is based on the performance of State/Union Territory (UT) on the following five significant parameters-

1. Human Resources and Institutional Data,
2. Compliance,
3. Food Testing – Infrastructure and Surveillance,
4. Training & Capacity Building and
5. Consumer Empowerment.

Significance of the State Food Safety Index: It is a dynamic quantitative and qualitative benchmarking model that provides an objective framework for evaluating food safety across all States/UTs.

It is the 3^rd State food safety index developed by FSSAI.
Ranking of States/UTs:
- Among the Big States: Gujarat was the top-ranking state, followed by Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
- Among the Small States: Goa was the top-ranking state followed by Meghalaya and Manipur.
- Among UTs: Jammu & Kashmir, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and New Delhi secured top ranks.