High Court upholds powers conferred on Food Safety Officers

The order was passed on a petition filed by an oil trading firm

The Madras High Court Bench here has upheld the power conferred on Food Safety Officers to make surprise inspections in business establishments, seize edibles suspected to be adulterated and seal the premises pending a detailed inquiry.

Justice M. Venugopal passed the order while dismissing a writ petition filed by an oil trading company based in Karur district with a plea to restrain the Collector and officials of the Food Safety and Drug Administration department from interfering with the petitioner’s business.

Claiming to possess licences for trading in both edible and non-edible oil but doing business only with respect to non-edible oil, the petitioner’s firm had accused the Food Safety Officer of having seized its consignments and sealed the premises without prior notice.

On the other hand, Additional Government Pleader A. Muthukaruppan contended that the premises was inspected on receipt of complaints that the petitioner firm was in the habit of converting substandard edible oil into cooking oil by mixing unauthorised chemical agents.

He pointed out that the Food Safety Officer of the district had made a surprise inspection of the petitioner’s premises, seized the adulterated oil, sent the samples for chemical analysis and sealed the rest of the consignment after shifting it to one of the rooms in the oil firm.

Accepting the AGP’s contention, the judge said that Section 38 (1) to (6) of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 empowers the designated officers under the law to seize any article of food which appears to have been adulterated and initiate necessary action against individuals concerned.

‘Bills not produced’

Further, pointing out that the petitioner firm had not produced the sales bills of raw materials purchased by it and other relevant documents despite a notice issued by the Food Safety Officer, the judge said: “the petitioner had also failed to establish its bona fide transaction or action.”