Ensuring Food Safety in Grapes through Good Agricultural Practices

摘要

With the changing pattern of food consumption some life taking food borne diseases have emerged since last few years and consumers are increasingly conscious about the food safety and health issues. To address the issue of food safety, agriculturistsand policy makers of different countries have taken up certain measures to ensure sanitation of agricultural produce right from the farm to the table. Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) is one of these standards developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and presently GAP certification is a must for export in most of the developed countries. GAP aims at attaining social, economic and environmental sustainability by following certain criteria right from the planting of crop to the marketing.India with more than 28.2 million tonnes of fruits is the 2nd largest producer of fruits in the world. India has the distinction of achieving the highest productivity in grapes in the world, with an average yield of 30 t/ha. More than 80 per cent of thetotal production is consumed as table grapes in India. Well maintained and established grapes orchards bring better returns per unit area of land than many of the field crops. Approximately, 2.5 per cent (22,000 tonnes) of fresh grapes are exported to the Middle East and European countries through three different agencies viz., grower exporters, growers' cooperatives and the trader exporters. GAP is essential to meet the quality standards of these countries where grapes are exported in large quantity.Since table grapes are consumed fresh, food safety issues are even more relevant to it. Starting from presence of pathogens, pesticide residues to poor handling and packaging, everything can make the produce unacceptable for export. Hence, disseminationof knowledge on GAP for grapes among the stakeholders including grapes growers, line department professionals and trader-exporters is essential to maintain food safety standards of international market and exploit the huge export potential of grapes.