Assuring High Standards with Quality Food

FOOD IS ESSENTIAL for our survival and safe food is necessary for sound health. India faces a silent epidemic today of diet-related diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and obesity, with all research papers indicating a direct relationship between the food that we eat and the consequential repercussions on health

- G. Kamala Vardhana Rao

Food standards form the bedrock of the food safety ecosystem. The theme declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) for this year's World Food Safety Day, observed on 7 June was 'Food standards save lives. This aims to recognise the importance of food standards in ensuring that the food we eat is safe. It is equally essential for us to understand the importance of 'eating right'.

In the last two decades, the volume of food produced globally has grown exponentially. As per statistics of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the global value generated by agriculture, forestry and fishing grew by 78 per cent in real terms between 2000 and 2020 to touch $3.6 trillion.

Asia Main Contributor

Asia was the main contributor to global agriculture, forestry and fishing value added with 64 per cent of the world total in 2020. The production of primary crops was 9.3 billion tonnes in 2020, 52 per cent more than in 2000. Meat production has gone up by 45 per cent, from 104 million tonnes in 2000 to reach 337 million tonnes in 2020. The global production of vegetable oils saw a sharp increase of 125 per cent between 2000 and 2019, to reach 208 million tonnes in 2019.

Sugarcane accounted for around 21 per cent of the global crop production between 2000 and 2020 and the share of maize increased by 10 per cent to 12 per cent during this period. World milk production increased by 53 per cent between 2000 and 2020 from 580 million tonnes to 887 million tonnes, with Asia accounting for 42 per cent of the milk produced globally in 2020.