Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, the Honorable Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare presented the Eat Right Research Award-2022 to the team of CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research (CSIR-IITR), Lucknow, including Dr Ramakrishnan Parthasarathi, Principal Scientist, Toxicoinformatics Research Group, Deepak Kumar Sachan, Meetali Sinha, and Shweta Singh Chauhan on World Food Safety Day, 7 June 2022. The award ceremony was held at the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) headquarters, FDA Bhawan, New Delhi. This award of excellence was given to the CSIR-IITR team for the research work on "Digital Food Safety System and Risk Assessment Databases" under the theme "Eat Safe".
On 2October 2021, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) launched the Eat Right Research Awards and Grants to foster a wider collaboration with academic and research institutions to encourage and recognise high-quality research in the areas of food safety and nutrition to update or upgrade food formulations and technologies, raise consumer awareness and expand the availability of safe and healthy food options.
According to officials, a total of 287 applications were received, and the most promising research work was chosen for this prestigious honour after going through numerous levels of assessment. The high-level award celebration was attended by numerous government officials, including Arun Singhal (IAS), food safety commissioners of various states, the CEO of FSSAI, as well as food and nutrition specialists, development agencies, stakeholders and scientists.
The dedicated “Digital Food Safety System and Risk Assessment Databases” work performed under CSIR-Mission Mode Programme on Food and Consumer Safety Solutions comprises data on food safety guidelines, resources for food safety knowledge dissemination, organising outreach programmes for stakeholder meetings & training, workshops on food safety and technology solutions, regular social media for providing timely updates and societal reach, street vendor programmes, food safety posters on clean/good food practices, and more specifically the two major food safety databases namely as FOCUS-DB: An Online Comprehensive Database on Food Additive Safety and ToxDP2 Database: Toxicity prediction of dietary polyphenols.
These databases are fully searchable and support extensive text, chemical structure, and relational query searches. We have provided the potential toxicity of food chemicals based on structural alerts. These predictions can effectively assist in food safety approaches. This comprehensive toxicity compiled in the database will support various developmental inventiveness of food nutritionists, researchers, dieticians, and manufacturers.
The database is a primary step to develop the relationships between the physicochemical properties of polyphenols and their toxicity. Acquired knowledge supports the safe-by-design approaches relevant to the formulation of functional food products such as supplements and nutraceuticals with reduced adverse effects. It provides direct access to physical and chemical properties, as well as, toxicokinetic effects of food chemicals and polyphenols on humans. This database is providing updated information on the toxicity for the retrieval of specific compounds, which is useful for food industrialists for safe usage and management such as a) consumer-focused instructions/warnings on the products; b) development of a new validated strategy to prevent or remove contaminants from the food products; c) benchmarking of predictions from different SAR models/experiments, and d) reduction of public health risks related to consumption.
Overall, the work resulted in a novel virtual confluence to benefit stakeholders involved in the entire food chain such as producers, consumers, researchers, regulators, and policymakers. This research work also empowers food industries and consumers in disseminating food safety outreach. The Digital Food Safety Portal is increasing food safety awareness, engagement of food safety stakeholders, and facilitating a future food safety framework for risk assessment.
