Kolkata, April 23 -- Bengal's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Agarwal on Wednesday stressed the need for the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MOFPI) to bring all stakeholders involved in the supply chain of fortified food under one umbrella to reach out to more people.
"What I gathered from the Millers of Nutrition (that provides guidance on fortification) is that most of the companies dealing in fortified food are lacking technical expertise and derive the same from the Government of India.
Their initiative is for eight counties and a few states in India. If all government agencies in the country such as the MOFPI, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), Women and Child Development department, Food Ministry, Ministry of Education come together, they can bring pan India agencies, which are part of the entire supply chain, under one platform. It will be like a movement and the entire cycle will be completed," Agarwal said at the launch event for 'Fort Fit Foods' flagship products, super rice and fortified atta.
Agarwal referred to MOFPI's conceiving of NIFTEM, Kundli as an International Centre of Excellence that aims to offer high quality educational and research programmes with management orientation specific to the food industry.
Agarwal, who has served as the principal secretary in the state Food and Supplies department, said that he is in touch with Subrata Gupta, secretary in the Union department of Food Processing Industries, and another top FSSAI officer. A seminar can be held with all stakeholders in the fortified food chain for discussing the best practices about this food.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.