Consumer Awareness and Food Safety: The Role of Education and Outreach

The article looks at the pivotal role played especially by the consumers’ practical knowledge in ensuring food safety for certain food products. Further, the paper suggests that through sustainable consumer education, Indians could connect and build consumer knowledge that may enable safer food production and consumption practices. Various codifications of consumer rights – as enshrined in public health literature, prescribed by legal frameworks (i.e., Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA), 2006) and referenced in the objectives and functions of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) – are carefully unpacked, analyzed, and distilled into a conclusion on the promising state of food safety in India. From the dependence in food safety on both formal education and financial resources through the role of the consumer as not only a final but also the first defender of a safe food system. From, though, the necessity to “project information through mass media promotions, publicity, etc” in “contemporary times” to the constraints faced by the nation in building food safe practices – the study brings the 2010 Discussion Paper on Internal Trade, which focuses on the Standards & Enforcement Network of the FCI Management Consultant awards, nearer to the people. Yet the recommendations in the paper call for robust educational initiatives and partnerships that better align India’s food safety standards with international best practices, and offer comprehensive consumer protections.