New Delhi, Mar 17 (PTI) More than 5.18 lakh food samples were analysed during the period from 2022-23 to 2024-25 by officials of food safety departments of respective states and Union territories as well as regional offices of FSSAI, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Tuesday.
During this period, 88,192 cases were decided with penalties and 3,614 cases resulted in convictions, while 1,161 licences were cancelled, Minister of State for Health Prataprao Jadhav said in a written reply.
Surveillance drives, monitoring, regulatory inspection and random sampling of various food products including milk, ghee, spices, honey, and paneer are conducted throughout the year to check compliance with the quality and safety parameters and other requirements as laid down under Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, he said.
The Fod Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has also developed Risk-Based Inspection System (RBIS) where frequency of inspection is decided based on risk associated with food businesses and issued guidelines, the minister said.
Annual inspections are to be conducted for all food categories identified as high risk. Total number of risk-based inspections done in the three-year period (2022-23 to 2024-25) are 56,259, Jadhav said.
The FSSAI extends financial and technical assistance to all states for strengthening of food safety infrastructure in the country. The 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 of food testing ecosystem such as high-end/ basic equipment for labs, among others.
To strengthen the food regulatory ecosystem in the country, the FSSAI has notified 252 food testing laboratories for analysis of food samples and 24 Referral Food Laboratories for the analysis of appellate samples, Jadhav said.
The FSSAI has also provided funds for Mobile Food Testing Laboratory (MFTL) referred to as ‘Food Safety on Wheels’ (FSW) to states and UTs. It is an important means to combat adulteration as FSWs are equipped with basic infrastructure for on spot testing of adulteration in various food commodities.
Currently, 305 FSWs are deployed across 35 states and UTs, the minister said. PTI PLB KVK KVK
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