Food safety is a theme having high priority and relevance among governments, civil society, the private sector and intergovernmental agencies across the globe. Changing consumer preferences, changes in production and distribution methods, evolving trade and travel, shifts in climatic and environmental factors, and growing anti-microbial resistance are some of the factors that increase the probability of occurrence of food hazards and food safety incidents. Unsafe food is a major public health issue and restoring food trust with the consumer is now becoming an important area of concern among governments, regulators and enforcement agencies, and large multinational companies. In India, increasing agricultural exports have long been an integral part of the government’s sector-development strategy. However, there have been serious challenges faced by exporters in order to streamline exports with the ever-changing food quality and safety norms of major importing countries. There have been incidences in which Indian export products have not complied with international food quality and safety norms leading to restrictions in market access to the importing countries. There have been concerns over pesticide residues in horticultural produce (EU’s ban on India’s mango exports in 2014, Saudi Arabia’s ban on India’s chillies’ export in 2014, the Indian Grape Export Crisis in 2003), aflatoxin contamination and the use of prohibited food colorants in spices’ export (Indian dry chili exports faced rejection in Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK due to the presence of aflatoxin in 2004-05, EU banned fish and fish exports from India in 1997 due to salmonella detection).

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