As per the Section 16 of the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006, the Food Authority shall promote co-ordination of work on food standards undertaken by international governmental and non-governmental organizations and also to promote consistency between international technical standards and domestic food standards through international cooperation.

In the International Cooperation, the main focus is to strengthen collaboration on food safety with various countries by meeting their representatives, liasioning with the officials from concerned Embassies/High Commissions and with concerned Ministries/ Departments, Organizations, Agencies etc. on matters pertaining to international issues in food safety. There have been formal engagements with relevant food safety agency in Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands and New Zealand.

Projects with the World Bank

A project for providing Technical Assistance to FSSAI for comprehensive integration of nutrition with food safety in its mandate and initiatives has been approved by the World Bank in October 2017.

This will help in addressing issues in the areas of Nutrition, Food Fortification, High Fat Salt & Sugar (HFSS) and help create FSSAI as Centre of Excellence in food safety and nutrition domain.

GFSP (Global Food Safety Partnership)

The Global Food Safety Partnership (GFSP) is an innovative, public-private initiative dedicated to supporting and promoting global cooperation for food safety capacity building. GFSP is uniquely able to assess food safety systems and propose systems-based interventions to address specific food sector needs and to prioritize hazards and threats.

GFSP's commitment to a collaborative approach includes disseminating lessons learned and best practices to inform future food safety capacity building that improves public health, facilitates market access, and contributes to enhanced food security across the globe.

GFSP, established by the World Bank, is a unique public-private initiative dedicated to improve the safety of food in middle-income and developing countries. FSSAI entered into a partnership with GFSP for cooperation in the areas of food safety. Under this, GFSP conducted following specific training programs for FSSAI:

1. First ToT (Training of trainers) was conducted on Pesticide Residues and Mycotoxins in foods in Singapore in Dec 2016.

2. Second such training on Veterinary Drug Residues was held in the University of Maryland, US in April 2017.

3. The Master Trainers from ToT’s are now providing training on these subjects in India and help create a pool of trained personnels.

4. GFSP’s Governing Council meeting was held in New Delhi in Feb 2017 which led to further strengthening of FSSAI’s collaborations with GFSP.

5. GFSP’s Regional Council meeting held in New Delhi during May 2017 was ahigh level dialogue on building trust and capacity building for safe food in Asia. It reviewed emerging challenges and opportunities for improving food safety management in South Asian region.

6. After the dialogue, the Delhi Declaration had been issued by GFSP which focuses on improving food safety in Asia through collaborations and explicitly covers the scope of works that may be taken up under the aegis of GFSP.

7. GFSP is also supporting FSSAI in setting up an International Training Centre in Mumbai.

8. Further, GFSP is also facilitating Study visit of FSSAI/Indian delegation to various countries.