Stake Holders Meet on Food Safety Conducted

Dr. Femeena Hassan addressing the gathering

Food safety isgetting more importance among the consumers and is very importantto prevent food borne-illness from mishandled food.Foodis an important thing that determines health of a society or a nation and it is a tool to meet public health goal. Safe food is produced by adhering to good hygienic practice, good manufacturing and good agricultural practice etc.Fish and shellfish are more likely to produce food borne-illness than any other category of food item.Fish products are perishable by nature and refrigeration alone cannot ensure the safety and quality of the product. Assuring safety to the consumer is possible only by practicing safety tools and guidelines.

Fishery provides a large food source as well as employment to the whole world. Both men and women are working in different fields of fishery(harvest and post harvest). There are many fishery based microenterprises and self help groups all over in India thriving on the supply of fish both to domestic and international markets. But as far as food safety is concerned their knowledge and understanding is very poor. Sensitizing them through scientific interventions is the major objective of the DST supported project entitled “Food safety interventions for women in fishery based microenterprises in coastal Kerala” which is under operation at CIFT, Cochin

As part of the activity of the project a meeting was organized for the benefit of the stake holders and local bodies at Valiyaparampa in Kasargod district, which has been identified as one of the place for implementation of the project on12 February, 2013. The meeting was presided over by ShriV.V. Uthaman, President, Fishermen Welfare Society, Thrikkarippur.Smt. Sandhya Krishnan, Matsyafed Project Officer – Cluster I welcomed the gathering. Shri K.H. Sherief, Project Officer, Matsyafed offered felicitation. Dr.Femeena Hassan, Senior Scientist, CIFT and PI of the project gave a detailed account of the project. Dr.S.Balasubramaniam, Head, EIS Division, CIFT also spoke on the occasion. Smt.AjsaParveen, Senior Research fellow proposed vote of thanks.