FSSAI seizes food worth Rs 81.8 crore, suspends 1,133 licences

Food safety authorities seized products valued at Rs 81.80 crore and suspended 1,133 licences after inspecting 56,431 food establishments across India ahead of Diwali. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) said the nationwide drive, carried out between September 1 and November 5, covered sweets, dairy products, edible oils and other commonly purchased foods.

In figures released on Saturday, the regulator said officials had seized 3,279.57 tonnes of food classified as banned or not meeting prescribed standards. Inspections were undertaken with state food safety departments across states and Union Territories. The campaign included checks at food businesses dealing in everyday groceries as well as products bought for festive celebrations.

The action covered several categories of food. Among the items seized were milk, paneer, khoya, ghee and sweets. Officials also took action involving edible oils, bakery products, chocolates, ice creams, namkeen, packaged foods and festive gift hampers. FSSAI did not provide a separate value or quantity for each category in the figures made public.

Licences cancelled and businesses sealed

Apart from suspending 1,133 licences, the authorities cancelled 52 licences and sealed 314 establishments during the inspection period. They also served 10,047 improvement notices on food business operators after identifying shortcomings that required corrective action.

Under the Food Safety and Standards Act, an improvement notice sets out the areas in which a business has failed to comply with the rules and specifies what it must do to correct them. A business that fails to comply can face suspension of its licence and, subject to the prescribed procedure, cancellation. The figures released for this drive do not establish that each suspension followed one of the notices issued during the same period.

More than 43,000 food samples collected

Officials collected 43,939 food samples for examination. Of these, laboratories had analysed 23,648 samples, while 2,273 of the tested samples were found to be non-compliant with food safety requirements.

The regulator also reported the initiation of 410 prosecutions over alleged violations detected during the exercise. 

Inspections conducted across India

FSSAI said the inspections were part of its heightened monitoring of the food trade during the festival season. State food safety authorities worked alongside the central regulator in checking establishments and collecting samples.

The authority has not published a state-wise breakdown of the nationwide totals in the information released with its latest figures. It said coordination with state authorities would continue to ensure food businesses follow the standards prescribed under the country's food safety law.