Airline Catering Industry under FSSAI Regulation

Introduction

FSSAI (Food and Safety Authority of India) is an autonomous body established under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. It ensures a unified and comprehensive approach towards the safety and hygiene of all food products for human consumption. It makes sure that all food-related items undergo quality checks, thereby curtailment of adulteration of food and sale of substandard products. It is also responsible for the registration and licensing of FBOs (food business operators). It operates under the Food Safety and Standard Act, 2006, which consolidates various acts, regulations, standards, and orders.

Recent news

FSSAI, the food safety regulator, directed airlines to strictly adhere to the norms regarding food safety and hygiene rules and regulations for all passengers. The IndiGo incident revealed the substandard quality of eatables used for making packaged food items, violating passenger’s health and physical well-being.

FSSAI is promptly addressing serious concern by issuing a show cause notice to IndiGo Airline, demanding a response for potential license suspension or cancellation after your airline’s food services supplied dangerous food items.

Though Indigo had sincerely apologized for the inconvenience caused to their passengers and assured to implement corrective measures to prevent its reoccurrence,. However, the major concern is that we cannot avoid the fact of alleged food norm violations. Indigo is just one of the instances.

Preventive Measure

In order to curb food-related issues on board flights and enhance the catering services, FSSAI stresses a significant improvement and reinforces its commitment to deliver their customers with a secure and premium in-flight meal.

FSSAI addresses the widespread concern regarding insufficient information about passenger’s food requirements by emphasizing the necessity for menu labeling of food packages in accordance with the provisions outlined under the Food Safety and Standard (Labeling and Display) Regulation 2020.

This would aim to improve transparency by providing passengers with exhaustive information about nature, origin, and manufacturing-related food details.

We need a specialized training curriculum for catering staff to guarantee a comprehensive understanding of food safety and hygiene practices.

And swift handling of customer grievances by developing robust mechanisms for prompt solutions.

Conclusion

The apparent violation related to food safety by the country’s largest airline has certainly enlightened the food safety agency about the issue of substandard food supplied on-board flights. Also, a reminder for passengers travelling to be vigilant and issues necessary compliance with respective authorizes. The concerned authorities must be robust in taking action against the concerned airline, conduct a proper investigation, and issue penalties if held liable. Further, all airlines must comply with their obligations with respect to food safety and hygiene.