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The Indian food processing sector, recognized as a thrust area for the country’s development has shown tremendous potential for growth and is recognized as a sunrise sector. The increase in income levels, growing urbanization, growing middle class, changing cultures, etc have led to significant increase in the consumption of processed and ready to eat food and snacks.

The Ministry of Food Processing Industires was set up in July 1988 to given an impetus to the development of the food processing sector. Its basic role is to create an enabling environment to encourage value addition at each stage of the food consumption chain i,e., from the grower to the consumer on the one han & develop an implementable regulatory framework to ensure food quality & food safety on the other.

India ranks 2nd in the production of fruits & vegetables and is the largest producer of milk. The country has one of the largest livestock population. Despite and attractive and varied raw material base, India processes only 2 percent of fruits and vegetables, 2 percent of poultry and meat products, 14 percent of milk through modern dairies and 4 percent of fish which is much below the processing levels achieved by other countries. in Philippines and China, value addition in food products is 45% and 23% respectively as compared to ours of 20%.

We have a growing demand for food products, which is not met adequately due to wastages and inadequate processing. It is estimated that loss of about Rs. 55,000 crores every year can be mitigated by increasing productivity of the firm produce coupled with minimizing post harvest losses etc. in order to have better acceptability of processed foods in the national/ international market, emphasis is being given to improve productivity and quality. For this there is a need to upgrade food -testing facilities to ensure quality food products and to harmonize food laws within the country in line with international standards.

At present thirteen different laws affect food and food processing sector. Multiple laws / regulations prescribe varied standards regarding food additives, contaminants, food colours, preservatives and labeling. The Food Safety & Standards Act, 2006 has been enacted in August 2006, to do away with the multiplicity of laws, bring in transparent and scientific methodologies for setting up of standards, move towards self regulation by industry, improve compliance of food laws, with penalties being proposed in consonance with gravity of infractions. The Government has given the food-processing sector a high priority due to its enormous potential for income generation for vast rural population, employment generation and exports. The ministery aims at value addition of agricultural produce, induction of modern technology into the food processing industries and minimizing wastage in the food processing chain by developing infrastructure for storage, transportation and processing of agro-food produce. Besides encouraging R&D in food processing, this Ministry also works towards providing policy support, promotional initiatives and physical facilities to promote quality of value-added food products exports.

The Ministry has recently prepared Vision 2015 document for the food processing sector in order to realize the vast potential of Indian agriculture by trebling the size of the processed food sector and by increasing value addition from 20% to 35% and level of processing of perishables from 6% to 20% by 2015.

• As a part of our strategy to develop food-procesing infrastructure, the Ministry has been pro actively pursuing the task of setting up of “Food Parks” in different parts of the country. The idea behind setting up of food parks is thatsmall and medium entrepreneurs find it difficult to invest in capital intensive activities such as cold storage, warehouse, quality control labs, effluent treatment plant etc. Assistance for development of such facilities can make the food processing units in the food parks not only become more cost competitive, but also have a better market orientation.

• Government has decided to set up a National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management as an apex knowledge center in the field of latest food technology. Given the strength of surplus in food sector due to growth rate
of agricultural production being higher than growth rate of population in the country, we have opportunities of rapid growth of food processing sector leading to export growth. The country is , therefore, gearing itself to become a major value added food producer and supplier of the world in the next decade so as to generate income, employment and foreign exchange. The Ministry is, therefore, focusing on creating an environment
to increase the level of processing, value additon and share in global trade.

For more details http://www.nstmis-dst.org