Everyone should be aware about the risks they are putting to themselves by ignoring food safety norms and this is why World Food Safety Day is important. It reminds people to be alert towards the food that they are consuming so that they can ensure safe living for themselves and their families. Since very small organisms like parasites, viruses, bacteria and chemical substances are not visible to us, we might be consuming them through contaminated food items. Many startups are helping us identify the risks. Below is a feature on 4 such startups.

1. Zoofresh - Sadananda Satapathy and Ambika Satapathy are the directors of the startup. The 1.2 trillion meat industry in India is highly unorganized. 90% of the retail sales happens in the unhygienic “wet” shops with no health standards. Also, due to lack of storage facilities, post-harvest losses are high. Farming of poultry and fish is done using growth hormones and antibiotics. Also, fish is sprayed with certain preservatives which are very harmful. ZooFresh foods has brought a much-required change in the meat industry in Eastern India through integrated meat aggregation and distribution model, which begins at the farms level and passes on from there to farmer networks, logistics, storage points, rural hubs and state-of-the-art,FSSAI certified urban retail outlets. With this, not only the livelihood of local farmers get enhanced, there is reduction in wastage too. The meat products are fresh and of healthiest quality. Zoofresh is based in Orissa and caters to eastern India.

2. RAW Pressery - When it comes to fruit juices it is difficult to find unadulterated and hygienically processed fruit juice. Juices prepared by RAW Pressery are not pasteurized rather high-pressure processing is done and hence there is lesser loss of nutrition. It’s a good situation for both farmers and consumers because the start-up picks up fruits directly from farmers and they are able to earn more money this way in absence of any middlemen. Consumers get hygienic fruit juices with high nutritional value. The juices have a store value of 21 days and are free of any preservative, colors, chemical or added flavors. The USP of the company is - “Just the fruit and nothing else”. RAW Pressery takes pride in being India’s first and largest clean label F&B brand, and provides 100% natural fruit juices. The startup is based in Maharashtra. Anuj Rakyan is its founder.

3. Delmos Research – Adulterated milk can be detrimental for human health. It may cause gasto-intestinal complications and food poisoning in the short term. Long term impact can be more severe especially for very small children for whom the milk is the only complete meal. With lowered nutritive value of adulterated milk, their growth is at risk. This problem needs special attention. Delmos Research has come up with easy to use, rapid tests known as delstrips for detection of adulteration in milk. This test can be done by anyone by just dipping the strip in the milk and observing the color change. Babbar Singh and Manoj Kumar Maurya are the founders of this startup which is based in Karnal.

4. Coolcrop -Niraj Marathe is the CEO of the organization and works with the objective of progress of farmers by providing them solutions so that they can better store their perishable horticulture crops. Due to lack of adequate storage infrastructure they have to sell their harvest at a very low price to prevent wastage. Coolcrop helps such farmers to store their crops well through decentralized, cost-effective solar-powered micro cooling stations at farm-level to be used by a co-operative or a farmer group. This is helping the farmers to not only earn better but keeping their crops safe from perishing and going down in quality. Coolcrop is headquartered in Gujrat and operates in 5 Indian states.

With an estimated 600 million cases of illnesses due to food contamination it's satisfying that startups like above are working with a noble cause of reducing health risks in society.