Every year millions of people around the world become sick as a result of consuming contaminated and unsafe food. In recent years, the occurrence of serious outbreaks of foodborne diseases on practically every continent has demonstrated both their public health and social significance. Besides the human suffering, the consequences of foodborne illness for country like ours are particularly severe. The burden of disease strains health care systems and affects economic productivity in general, while uncontrolled contamination of food affects the development of sustainable food production systems.

While Directorate General of Health Services and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare are making attempts on different fronts to tackle this situation, we recognize that in order to make a lasting change in our country, food safety education is the foremost priority. Thus, if we are to herald in food safety and hygiene practices effectively, within our country, we need to first start educating the students, pursuing various professional food / home science and catering courses. Subsequently, we need to take the food safety concept to schools, as children can be groomed better and can play a crucial role in spreading awareness about food safety.

Accordingly, steps were taken by Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in mid 2002, to review the existing syllabi of different universities, colleges and institutions dealing with food sciences and related fields so as to assess the adequacy of the courses in these institutions on food safety.Consequent to the review it was observed that the courses offered were not emphasizing adequately on food safety and hygiene concepts.

With a view to review the syllabi of these courses leading experts in field of food safety, hygiene and quality assurance were identified and were requested to contribute as to which food safety topics needs to be included for the undergraduate courses and to also provide the course contents of such topics. On the basis of the feedback from all experts, a food safety syllabi was developed along with the course contents. The compiled course contents were sent to all the experts for review and comments were sought.

Subsequently, a two-day workshop on `Preparation of Curricula on Food Safety’ was organised by DGHS, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, on 14th & 15th April 2003, at National Institute of Biologicals, Noida. The workshop was attended by 24 participants, comprising experts in food safety, hygiene and quality assurance, from the academics, research institutes, industry and the government.

The experts deliberated for two days on all the course material very deeply and examined each and every topic. While examining, the comments received from various sources were also taken into consideration. The experts adopted the course curriculum with some modifications for which feedback from the experts, identified for the purpose, was requested. An Editorial Board was constituted and it was decided that the Board shall finalise the course curriculum after taking into consideration the feedback received from various experts. The Editorial Board met on 16th June 2003 at Nirman Bhavan, New Delhi and finalised the curricula on food safety.

The Directorate General of Health Services and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare wishes to place on record its deep appreciation to all the experts for their valuable contribution in preparing the course contents and also for sparing their precious time to participate in this initiative.

The Directorate General of Health Services and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare are striving for its effective utilization by the universities and educational institutions at the earliest. It is hoped that the academic institutions would come forward and use this curricula on food safety by incorporating them appropriately in existing relevant courses and also introduce new courses on food safety.