Food Safety and Standard Act, 2006

The Food Safety and Standard Act of  2006

The FSSAI act was enacted to ensure prevention of fraudulent, deceptive or unfair trade practices which may mislead or harm the consumer, and unsafe, contaminated or sub-standard food. (what is FSSAI ?)

The Act is divided into twelve chapters and two schedules - 

Chapter I            Preliminary (preamble,short title and definition)
Chapter II           Food Safety and Standards authority of India
Chapter III         General Principles of Food Safety
Chapter IV         General Provisions as to articles of food
Chapter V           Provisions relating to Import of food
Chapter VI          Special responsibilities as to food safety
Chapter VII         Enforcement of the Act
Chapter VIII        Analysis of food
Chapter IX           Offences and Penalties
Chapter X            Adjudication and food safety appellate tribunal
Chapter XI           Finance, Accounts, Audits and reports
Chapter XII          Miscellaneous

Objectives of the Act :

The main objectives of the Food safety and standard Act are

a) To have a single law relating to food
b) Establish the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, 
c) Lay down science based standards for articles of food,
d) effectively regulate food processing industry, 
e) ensure availability of safe and wholesome food for human consumption

Also several regulations have been notified under the Act and enforced with effect from August 2011 they are - 

Food Safety & Standards (Licensing & Registration of Food

Businesses) Regulations, 2011

Food Safety and Standards (Food Product Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011

Food Safety and Standards (Contaminants, Toxins & Residues) Regulations, 2011

Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restrictions on Sale)

Regulations, 2011

Food Safety & Standards (Packaging & Labelling) Regulations, 2011

Food Safety and Standards (Laboratory and Sampling Analysis) Regulations, 2011

Features of the FSSAI ACT

1. Movement from multi-level and multi-department control to a single line of command
2. FSSAI as a single reference point for all matters relating to Food Safety and Standards, Regulations and Enforcement
3. Integrated response to strategic issues like Novel foods,Health Foods, Nutraceuticals, GM foods, international trade etc.
4. Decentralisation of licensing for manufacture of food products
5. Achieve high degree of consumer confidence in quality & safety of food
6. Investor friendly regulatory mechanism with emphasis on self regulations and capacity building
7. Enforcement of the legislation by the State Governments/UT's through the State Commissioner for Food Safety, his officers and Panchayati Raj/Municipal bodies
8. Emphasis on gradual shift from regulatory regime to self compliance through food safety management system.
9. Consistency between domestic and international food policy measures without reducing safeguards to public health and consumer protection
10. Adequate information dissemination on food to enable consumer to make informed choices.
11. Compounding and Adjudication of cases – to reduce Court’s workload and expedite the disposal of cases
12. Graded penalty depending upon the gravity of offences.

Other Important points 

The FSSAI Act of 2006 came into force after 5 years in parliament and it subsumed many other previous existing acts that are -

Prevention of Food Adulteration Act of 1954

Fruit Products Order  1955

Meat Food Products Order 1973

Vegetable Oil Products (Control) Order of 1947

Edible Oils Packaging (Regulation)Order of 1988

Solvent Extracted Oil, De- Oiled Meal and Edible Flour (Control) Order of 1967,

Milk and Milk Products Order of 1992 

Essential Commodities Act, 1955