New Delhi, Oct 14: India has been included as a member of the working group on an international body on food standards and successfully got amendments incorporated on provisions related to bamboo shoots, canned stone fruit and coconut products. The Texas based codex committee on processed fruits and vegetables (CCPFV) was adopting stricter standards for these products including handling of frozen fruits.
However, India persuaded the committee to include appropriate amendments in the standards as the earlier norms would have been a major handicap for the country's exports, an official statement said here.
It said India has been included as a member of the working groups on priority themes for the next meeting of the committee where tender coconut has been included in the priority list.
It is also a member of the working groups for canned tomato concentrate and canned vegetables, it added.
Meanwhile, the ministry of food processing is identifying the issues to be focused on in the next meeting of the codex committee two years later.
Mysore-based Central Food Technology Research Institute has been asked to set the Indian agenda for the different groups of the codex committee through its codex laboratory even as the ministry generates the data on volume of trade in each commodity and items critical for trade in India.
While the health ministry is the national codex point, the ministry of food processing is the designated convenor for five shadow committees and has to prepare the country's position on the concerned subjects. Bureau Report