Tainted Bites, Tattered Rights
Adulterated food isn’t just a health threat—it’s a violation of dignity, demanding stronger laws, stricter enforcement, and a renewed commitment to every citizen’s right to safe nutrition
Food adulteration has been a global concern for a long time. Clean food is a basic human right. Adulteration is done in various ways and broadly falls under two categories: intentional and incidental or accidental adulteration. An adulteration in which food items are intentionally adulterated, diluted, or tampered with is termed intentional adulteration. Incidental or accidental adulteration, as the name suggests, is adulteration that happens without any deliberate or intentional attempt on the part of the supplier.
The Food Safety and Standards Act (FSS), 2006, is the primary law for the regulation of food products. This Act, inter alia, sets up the formulation and enforcement of food safety standards in India. The statute is a bucket for several older laws, rules, and regulations for food safety. The FSS Act brought together seven older acts under one umbrella, such as the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954; Fruit Products Order, 1955; Meat Food Products Order, 1973; Vegetable Oil Products (Control) Order, 1947; Edible Oils Packaging (Regulation) Order, 1998; Solvent Extracted Oil, De-Oiled Meal and Edible Flour (Control) Order, 1967; and Milk and Milk Products Order, 1992. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has been set up under this statute.
It is important to note that the law of the land takes care of every act of illegality and negligence when it comes to food. Therefore, entities and individuals must be exceptionally careful in matters of food. For instance, there are penalties under the FSS Act for selling food not of the nature, substance, or quality demanded; for sub-standard food; misbranded food; misleading advertisement; food containing extraneous matter; failure to comply with the directions of a Food Safety Officer; penalties for unhygienic or unsanitary processing or manufacturing of food; for possessing adulterants—whether injurious to health or not; contraventions for which no specific penalty is provided; punishment for unsafe food—whether it results in no injury, a non-grievous injury, a grievous injury, or death; punishment for interfering with seized items; punishment for providing false information; punishment for obstructing or impersonating a Food Safety Officer; and punishment for carrying out a business without a licence, etc.
The Government of India, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, has notified the Food Safety and Standards (Amendment) Rules, 2024, amending the 2011 Rules, via notification dated October 29, 2024. The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, as well as the Indian Penal Code, 1860, also address acts of adulteration in food and drink, and the sale of noxious food or drink, etc.
In fact, in Swami Achyutanand Tirth & Ors vs Union of India & Ors, 2016, the Top Court inter alia said that since in India, traditionally, infants and children are fed milk, adulteration of milk and its products is a concern, and stringent measures need to be taken to combat it. The consumption of adulterated milk and adulterated milk products is hazardous to human health. The Court referred to its direction for suitable amendments in the FSS as well as making penal provisions at par with the provisions contained in the State amendments. Various directions and observations were made in the dictum.
In Centre for Public Interest Litigation vs Union of India & Ors, 2013, the Supreme Court said the enjoyment of life and its attainment, including the right to life and human dignity, encompasses within its ambit the availability of articles of food without insecticide or pesticide residues, veterinary drug residues, antibiotic residues, solvent residues, etc. But the fact remains that many of the food articles like rice, vegetables, meat, fish, milk, and fruits available in the market contain insecticide or pesticide residues beyond tolerable limits, causing serious health hazards. The Court said it was noticed that fruit-based soft drinks available in various fruit stalls contain such pesticide residues in alarming proportions, but no attention is paid to examine their contents. Children and infants are uniquely susceptible to the effects of pesticides because of their physiological immaturity and greater exposure to soft drinks, fruit-based or otherwise.
The Apex Court directed the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India to gear up its resources along with their counterparts in all the States and Union Territories to conduct periodical inspections and monitor major fruits and vegetable markets, to ascertain whether they conform to the standards set by the Act and the Rules. The Court emphasised that penal provisions are also provided and that it is, therefore, of utmost importance that the provisions of the Acts are properly and effectively implemented so that the State can achieve an appropriate level of human life and health, safeguarding the right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
India, both on the legislative and judicial side, has been extremely proactive when it comes to food. With better execution across the globe, we can have a much healthier world.
The writer is a practising Advocate in the Supreme Court and High Court of Delhi. Views expressed are personal
