Food for thought: issues of food safety
The Ministry of Food Processing Industries, GOI, has declared 2008-09 as Food safety and Quality Year. Food safety implies absence or safe levels of various of kinds of contaminants. Sources of food contamination include harmful chemicals, heavy metals, pesticides, preservatives, colouring agents, additives, adulterants etc. Food contamination leads of life-threatening diseases and is a major cause of health hazard especially in developing countries. India needs to be a lot in terms of effective implementation of the existing laws to deal with the menace of unsafe food.