26,000 food samples found adulterated/ misbranded in 2018-19

New Delhi: Twenty six thousand food samples were found adulterated or misbranded in 2018-19 in India, the government told the Rajya Sabha on Friday.
Fines of over Rs 32 crores have been collected, said Rameswar Teli, minister of state, Food Processing Industries while responding to a written question on food adulteration and enforcement of standards in Rajya Sabha.

He informed that in 2018-19, 94,288 samples of processed food were analysed. Out of this 26,077 thousand samples were found adulterated or misbranded. He further added that a total of 32.8 crore rupees were raised as penalties last year, he said. The maximum number of samples found adulterated or misbranded were in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Informing the house of the enforcement mechanism, the minister added that commissioners of Food Safety of states were regularly conducting inspections, surveillance and enforcement drives in food processing units to ensure compliance with laid down standards. In cases where samples were found to be non-conforming to the provisions of Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Act, 2006, and Rules and regulations made there under, penal action has been initiated against the defaulting food business operators (FBOs) as per the provisions of FSS Act, 2006, and rules and regulations made there under, he said.