Food Safety Management in Spice Supply Chain

This chapter discusses food safety, quality, and regulatory compliances of spice supply chain, with specific reference to the Indian context, as well as the challenges they pose to the overall landscape of food safety compliance. The major changes in the supply chain of Indian spices over the past 75 years have been reviewed, and the way forward to improve compliance against the changing food safety requirements have also been discussed. India is the largest producer as well as consumer of spices in the world. Though challenges to regulatory compliances are still aplenty, Indian spice supply chain has shown significant improvement in compliance with modern food safety standards, especially in the past decade. The fact that Indian spices have been able to cater to the stringent global food safety standards to an extent is evidenced by the improving export numbers of value-added spices. Indian regulations have also undergone changes for the better, though at much slower paces than necessary, to achieve improved food safety compliance in the domestic market as well. Indian farmers have been cultivating spices in small, fragmented farms by employing traditional, labor-oriented agricultural, harvest, and post-harvest practices. Agrochemicals have abundantly been in use, often indiscriminately, at various stages of cultivation, storage, and transportation. Most often, their usage is neither need-based nor dose-based. Harvest is mostly by hand, followed by sun-drying under inadequate hygienic conditions. Such practices result in contamination of the final products by means of physical, chemical, and microbial hazards in the supply chain. For such a challenging supply chain, a scientific management strategy based on risk-based preventative controls should be implemented right from the farm to ensure safety of the final products. At the farm, risk management programs such as Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), Sustainable Agricultural Practices (SAP), Biodiversity-Friendly Agricultural Practices (BAP), and Best Harvest and Post-Harvest Practices (BHP and BHP) are key to minimizing the risks of contamination and for reducing microbial load, agrochemical residues, and foreign matter. During processing, effective programs such as Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), Good Hygiene Practices (GHP), and Food Safety Management System (FSMS) based on Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) and Supplier Quality Assurance (SQA) program by risk-based evaluation and assessment of supply chain partners are critical pre-requisite programs (PRP) to ensure compliance of the supply chain to advanced food safety requirements. Through concerted efforts of farmers, Farmer-Producer’s Organisations (FPOs), NGOs, trade bodies and organizations, spice research and promotional organizations, government laboratories and institutions, private companies and exporters, and supply chain experts and consultants, the supply chain has evolved at much greater pace of late. Consumer preferences and resultant market orientation toward enhanced food-safe products, stricter global regulatory scenarios, strong and serious intervention of regulatory bodies such as Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to deliver food-safe produce for consumers have certainly started upgrading a significant part of the supply chain in India to be able to supply to regulated markets without many hassles.