The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), on Tuesday, held its first Focus Day in India with a seminar in the capital aimed at raising awareness on managing and advancing food safety on a global scale.
The event was attended by over 200 local and international food safety professionals, including eminent personalities such as Yves Rey, corporate quality general manager, Danone Group, and GFSI Board chair, France, and D V Darshane, director, policy & governance, global quality, safety & environment, the Coca Cola Company. Speakers shared their experiences of managing food safety in their organisations within the GFSI framework.
GFSI’s Focus Days are regional events designed to create or expand the food safety network in the selected region and to share views about current food safety trends with fellow food safety experts. These events further create a platform to bring together relevant stakeholders from the industry, including some of the world's leading food safety experts from retailer, manufacturer and food service companies, service providers associated with the food supply chain, international organisations, academia and government.
Speaking about the initiative, Rey said, “Managing food safety consistently in a global marketplace has become the major challenge in today’s world for all stakeholders in the food industry. Supply chains are becoming increasingly complex and interdependent on many different stakeholder groups. Collaboration is key to the success of GFSI, bringing together the food industry, governments, academia and other organisations to work on key food safety issues at local and global levels. India’s status as a world hub of food production and processing made it an obvious venue for our GFSI Focus Day, providing an opportunity for food industry stakeholders to come together, network and identify areas for future collaboration.”
Following the success of previous editions in the US, Brazil, Chile, China and Japan, the event in Delhi marked the first GFSI Focus Day in India, highlighting the increasing importance of the country within the food processing industry. The event acts as a stimulus for collaborations and partnerships within the framework of food safety management within the country as well as globally.
