PROGRESSIVE POLICIES-SETTING THE TREND!

Food industry's visible face to day is represented by large conglomerates with high sounding branded products heavily promoted through the well oiled retail marketing system. The "love-hate" relationship between the industry and the consumers can be misleading because, on one side there are severe criticisms against the prevalent practice among the processors to flood the market with mostly unhealthy foods while the consumers, in spite of spitting fire against the industry patronize them through higher purchases day after day with no let up! In this comic scenario, small and micro scale enterprises with limited resources are side lined with no opportunity to make a decent living. There are innumerable road blocks that hamper the working of this sector, especially the stringent safety regulations which are costly and difficult to be adhered to by these marginal players. It is in this context that one has to appreciate the new initiatives coming from law enforcement agencies in the US to relax the prevalent rules without compromising the safety of products. Here is a take on this important development that can bode well for the consumers. 

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The California Homemade Food Act (AB 1616) - more commonly known as the California Cottage Food Bill - passed the California Assembly Committee on Health, bringing small food operators in California one step closer to legally cooking food in their home kitchens and selling directly to consumers, as detailed in an article in the April issue of Food Nutrition & Science. "What I've always liked about the food business is the entrepreneurship and great ideas that come out of people's kitchens and often land on a shelf," says Phil Lempert, founder of Food Nutrition & Science and CEO of The Lempert Report and SupermarketGuru.com. "But it's expensive and very risky. The Cottage Food Bill allows entrepreneurs to test their products on a smaller scale and gives consumers the opportunity to try fresh and interesting products." The California Homemade Food Act would give aspiring food entrepreneurs the ability to generate income from their home kitchen. Also in this month's issue, an article on how some community gardeners are taking the concept a step further and planting edible forests in public spaces. The Beacon Food Forest is currently being developed in Seattle adjacent to the west side of Jefferson Park with the goal to grow enough nutritious food for everyone in need and empower other communities to create a shared local food source. In addition, BJ's Wholesale Club joins the regional food trend as the company recently announced its locally grown produce program, "Farm to Club," will be available in each of its 195 clubs in all 15 states where its clubs are located. The program, which provides BJ's members with a variety of quality fresh fruit and produce from their state's local farms, is rolling out this spring and summer".

Dilemma of government agencies in evolving equitable safety regulations is understandable because of the conflicting pull from the industry and the consumers. While ideally rules must be as stringent as possible, the ground reality and practicality of such protocols must be kept in view while finalizing the same. In many developing countries there are millions of food makers with investments as low as a few thousand rupees but do not have the wherewithal to test their products regularly for meeting the standards laid down by the government. While some leeway can be given in relaxing the standards, safety can never be compromised. It is here that collective and co-operative based cluster or pods of processors can pool their resources for establishing common testing facilities with shared costs. The famous Mumbai based Lijjat cooperatives that was able to make its mark in micro scale processing of many traditional food products is a classical example of such collective efforts. Another feature in India is the active involvement of many house holds in cooking food in their homes and delivering the same to families in need of such a service. As it is a private arrangement between two parties, the state may have no role to play in regulating them. Traditional foods made and consumed in India are mostly confined to cottage scale sector and government should show special consideration till they grow into industrial scale where after the regulatory protocols can be made stringent.    

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
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