New Delhi, March 17 During the period from 2022-23 to 2024-25, officials from the food safety departments of respective states and Union territories, as well as the regional offices of FSSAI, analyzed more than 5.18 lakh food samples, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Tuesday.
During this period, 88,192 cases were resolved with penalties, and 3,614 cases resulted in convictions, while 1,161 licenses were cancelled, said Minister of State for Health, Prataprao Jadhav, in a written reply.
Surveillance drives, monitoring, regulatory inspections, and random sampling of various food products, including milk, ghee, spices, honey, and paneer, are conducted throughout the year to ensure compliance with the quality and safety parameters and other requirements as laid down under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, he said.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has also developed a Risk-Based Inspection System (RBIS), where the frequency of inspections is determined based on the risk associated with food businesses, and guidelines have been issued, the minister said.
Annual inspections are to be conducted for all food categories identified as high-risk. A total of 56,259 risk-based inspections were conducted over the three-year period (2022-23 to 2024-25), Jadhav said.
The FSSAI provides financial and technical assistance to all states for strengthening food safety infrastructure in the country. This support includes strengthening enforcement and compliance, such as licensing and registration, inspections and audits, sampling and testing of enforcement and surveillance samples, consumer grievance redressal, and strengthening the food testing ecosystem, including high-end/basic equipment for labs.
To strengthen the food regulatory ecosystem in the country, the FSSAI has notified 252 food testing laboratories for analyzing food samples and 24 Referral Food Laboratories for analyzing appellate samples, Jadhav said.
The FSSAI has also provided funds for the Mobile Food Testing Laboratory (MFTL), referred to as "Food Safety on Wheels" (FSW), to states and Union Territories. This is an important means to combat adulteration, as FSWs are equipped with basic infrastructure for on-site testing of adulteration in various food commodities.
Currently, 305 FSWs are deployed across 35 states and Union Territories, the minister said.