Food Safety and Standards in India

In all countries, food is governed by complexities of laws and regulations. Variations in national food control systems involving monitoring and sampling, detection and analytical methods, and application of standards and food safety requirements can lead to trade restrictions. Countries have sometimes developed standards that were not based on science and in effect were nothing more than non-tariff barriers to trade. In this project we examine the food safety and standards of India in general, and analyse the impact of such food safety standards on India's agricultural trade flows with other countries. India's trade data for fishery, meat, cereals and vegetables for the years 2010–14 have been used to assess the impacts. A proxy index for food safety standards has been considered throughout the analysis, and has been shown to be significant. We find that India's food safety regime needs more effective implementation to meet best practice internationally