The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) aims to enhance hygiene and food safety at the meat and fish markets and slaughterhouses.

This comes in response to the coronavirus Covid-19 outbreak.

FSSAI has collaborated with the state governments across the country. It has also implemented a rating system for the fish and meat retail outlets.

Last year, the Indian food regulatory authority carried out audits of municipal slaughterhouses.

FSSAI CEO Pawan Agarwal said: “The issue of hygiene and food safety practices adopted in the meat and poultry sector has become even more significant, at a time when the world is dealing with the novel coronavirus COVID-19.

“We want to focus on further increasing sensitisation among food business operators and consumers regarding the issue of food safety and hygiene in this sector.”

“We conducted an audit of municipal slaughterhouses in the past year and believe they require a lot of hygiene upgradation. Private slaughterhouses are also now getting third-party audits.”

FSSAI intends to start a market surveillance programme. This will monitor the quality of imported packaged food and food supplements.

It has modernised several ports across the country to ensure that food imports arrive at proper testing facilities.

The virus was first identified at Huanan seafood market in Wuhan, the capital of neighbouring Hubei province.

In a bid to contain the spread of deadly coronavirus, the Chinese government imposed a temporary ban on the trade of wild animals.

The epidemic has killed 1,873 so far and infected more than 73,300 people.