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| Sunday, 18 September 2005 |
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Business |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Overall
modernisation, quality assurance vital for tea industry
by Don Asoka Wijewardena The tea industry in Sri Lanka needs overall modernisation and quality assurance as a number of tea producers are found to be using pestcides, blackening substances and various types of chemicals to tea bushes. Today buyers and consumers are becoming more educated about quality and safety of their purchases,said Sri Lanka Tea Board Chairman Niraj de Mel. He was speaking at a seminar on "Hazard Analysis of Critical Control Points (HACCP) in Tea Manufacturing" sponsored by the Tea Association of Sri Lanka under the aegis of Mercantile Produce Brookers (Pvt) Ltd at the Hotel Continental on Friday. Chairman de Mel said that in recent times some tea producers had taken to produce low quality tea by using various types of chemicals for quick growth without considering the quality and food safety methods. He said that the motive of these producers was profit maximisation and the time had come to draw attention on the quality and safety of tea. Referring to the importance of the international certification on Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP), de Mel said that HACCP is a system which would identify, evaluate and control hazards significant to the food industry. There had been a growing demand for HACCP which would reduce food-borne incidents caused by contaminated products that might affect human health and it would increase costs to the supplier and to the community, he said. D. Dharmadasa of SGS Lanka (Pvt) Ltd said that the principal objective of introducing the HACCP certification was to apply new general and specific hygienic rules that would ensure a high degree of consumer protection. He said that in 1985 the National Academy of Sciences had recommended HACCP for control of microbial hazards for food business operators as food safety hazards could be identified in biological, chemical and physical forms. Dharmadasa also said that the benefits of HACCP would include reducing
food poisoning incidents, meet food quality and regulatory requirements,
reduce inspection efforts, meet commercial requirements and help improve
business/productivity. He called upon all tea producers to obtain HACCP
certification and to produce quality tea to capture more export markets. |
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