Nowadays the market is full of adulterated food and products with fake labels. Selling fake spices, adulterated milk, expired products with new labels and selling poor quality goods in the name of fake brands is common. All this is a big threat to the health of common people.
Every year thousands of consumers from across the country register complaints related to food safety, adulteration and wrong labeling. In the last three years, thousands of complaints related to food items have been registered with the government. Most of these cases have been related to milk, spices, sweets, oil and packed food.
What is the law regarding food safety?
A law was made in 2006 for the quality and safety of food items in India. Its name is 'Food Safety and Standards Act 2006'. Some rules and regulations have also been made under this law. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of india (FSSAI) is responsible for looking into matters such as food safety, adulteration, label irregularities, quality control, investigation and imposing fines on those who break the rules. FSSAI works under the Ministry of health and Family Welfare. The state and union territory governments are responsible for implementing and ensuring these rules.
That is, the 2006 law makes rules for the quality and safety of food items. FSSAI looks into these rules and the state governments implement these rules.
Packaging and labeling rules
FSSAI has made the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules 2011 and FSS (Labeling and Display) Regulations 2020 the same in the rules of packaging and labeling. Name and address of the manufacturer/packer/importer, name of the packer or importer, month and year of manufacture or packing or import, 'best before' or 'use by' date, month and year should be as per FSSAI regulations. All other information should be as per legal metrology rules.
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