The government has collected over Rs 50 crore as a penalty in convicted cases of food adulteration in the last three financial years.
A penalty of Rs 38 crore has been collected from Uttar Pradesh.
The government has collected over Rs 50 crore as a penalty in convicted cases of food adulteration in the last three financial years. In 4,590 cases of food adulteration, the state of Uttar Pradesh has paid the highest amount of penalty in this duration. A penalty of Rs 38 crore has been collected from Uttar Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh, Goa, and Tamil Nadu are the other states where the rate of food adulteration is high. Over 60 per cent of the total convicted cases of food adulteration in India were from Uttar Pradesh in 2017-18.
“States undertake regular monitoring, inspection, and sampling of food items to check the compliance of the prescribed standards and take penal action in cases where the food products are found adulterated, misbranded or are of inferior quality,” Danve Raosaheb Dadarao, MoS, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, said in a reply to a query in Lok Sabha.
Food adulteration refers to a food product that fails to meet legal standards. It can lead to many harmful effects on health. Not only toxicity, but it can also make the body paralysed or lead to death. This makes it very important to detect adulterants.
Around 68.7 per cent of milk and its products sold in India did not follow the FSSAI standards, said a member of the Animal Welfare Board of India last year. Heart failure, liver disorders, kidney disorders are a common consequence of toxic adulterants. Adulterated food also hinders the nutrients and can make the body nutritive deficient.
Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has set up standards to ensure safe and nutritious food to the consumers through various regulations under the Food Safety and Standards Act. Implementation and enforcement of these standards is primarily the responsibility of state governments, said Danve Raosaheb Dadarao. The minister further informed that the states regularly monitor, inspect and collect samples of food items and wherever the prescribed standard is not followed, the penalty is imposed.
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