Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is ingested by an organism and assimilated by the organism's cells to provide energy, maintain life, or stimulate growth.

Food safety is a scientific discipline describing handling, preparation, and storage of food in ways that prevent foodborne illness. This includes a number of routines that should be followed to avoid potentially severe health hazards.

Food adulteration is the process in which the quality of food is lowered either by the addition of inferior quality material or by extraction of valuable ingredient. It not only includes the intentional addition or substitution of the substances but biological and chemical contamination during the period of growth, storage, processing, transport and distribution of the food products, is also responsible for the lowering or degradation of the quality of food products.

Adulterants are those substances which are used for making the food products unsafe for human consumption effects the retail public. Commercial buyers for whom this is an issue have simply taken the export system as a de facto standard and are willing to pay premium prices for produce from growers certified under the NPOP.

Food Safety and Standards Authority, 2006 is an Act enacted to keep with changing needs / requirements of time and to consolidate the laws relating to food and to establish the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. The Act was needed to bring out a single statutory body for food laws, standards setting and enforcement so that there is one agency to deal and no confusion in the minds of consumers, traders, manufacturers and investors which was due to multiplicity of food laws.

Yes, the Act consolidates various food laws.

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India in association with State Food Authorities are responsible for implementation &enforcement of FSSA, 2006 is the regulatory authority.

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India under Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 was set up on 5th September 2008.

FSSAI lays down science based standards for articles of food and to regulate their manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import, to ensure availability of safe and wholesome food for human consumption.

The mandate assigned to the Food Authority is (i) laying down science based standards for articles of food (ii) to regulate manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import of food (iii) to facilitate food safety.

The representative of the consumer organizations are members of the Food Authorities and Central Advisory Committee. The consumer may analyze the samples of food on payment of fees. In case of injury of death of consumer there is a provision for compensation to the consumer.

Food Authority is in the process of formulating and finalizing the various regulations/guidelines in terms of provisions under the Act to ensure the quality and safety of food and giving effect to the mandate of the Food Authority.

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India and State Food Authorities will investigate such complaints.

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India and State Food Authorities will regulate the food business in India.

There will be better auditing, Food Safety Management System (FSMS), traceability, recall and other systems in place which will help in curbing food adulterants.

Yes they all need to register with FSSAI and get a licence to sell food products.

Yes.

State Food Authorities (Commissioner of Food Safety of the States) are responsible for enforcement of FSS Act in the States.

Yes, FSSAI had recognized adequate number of NABL accredited laboratories authorized for analysis including labs (3) for radioactive contamination for imported food testing.

There are no microbiological guidelines for food in India, however the Microbiological standards exist in the FSSAI regulations for foods in India.

The FSSAI is in the process of developing the regulation for Novel Foods, Functional foods, food supplements etc. which is under consideration of the Scientific Panel on Functional Foods, Nutraceuticals, Dietetic Products and Other Similar Products of the Food Authority and will further be considered by the Scientific Committee, Food Authority and notified in the Official Gazette after previous approval of the Central Government.

GM foods means food and food ingredients composed of or containing Genetically modified or engineered organisms obtained through modern Biotechnology, or food and food ingredients produced from but not containing Genetically modified or engineered organisms obtained through modern Biotechnology. The GM food does not come under the purview of FSSAI.

Organic food is food produced by methods that comply with the standards of organic farming. Standards vary worldwide, but organic farming in general features practices that strive to cycle resources, promote ecological balance, and conserve biodiversity. Organizations regulating organic products may restrict the use of certain pesticides and fertilizers in farming. In general, organic foods are also usually not processed using irradiation, industrial solvents or synthetic food additives.

In India, Agricultural Processed Foods Export Development Authority (APEDA) under Ministry of Commerce is the controlling body for organic certification for export. Till date there are no domestic standards for organic produce within India. Currently 11 certification agencies have been authorized to undertake certification 13 process under National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP). Although there is no system for monitoring the labeling of organic produce sold within India, this primarily.

Yes.

?Recall? means action taken to remove a marketed food from distribution, sale and consumption which is unsafe and violate the provisions of the Act and the rules & regulations made there under. The purpose is to prevent, reduce or eliminate a risk arising from food to the consumer.

Yes the information on recall of food products may be provided on Food Authority website.

The consumer should not consume the product and return it to the shopkeeper from where they have purchase the product or return it to the company representative.

You should complain to the Food Safety Officer / Designated Officer /DC of your area or Food Safety Commissioner of the State.

You should complain to the Food Safety Officer / Designated Officer /DC of the area or Food Safety Commissioner of the State.

The information can be obtained from website of the FSSAI.

A Food Safety Management System (FSMS) is a network of interrelated elements that combine to ensure that food does not cause adverse human health effects. These elements include programs, plans, policies, procedures, practices,processes, goals, objectives, methods, controls, roles, responsibilities, relationships,documents, records, and resources.

To ensure the manufacture, storage, distribution and sale of safe food. For more information please visit https://foodlicensing.fssai.gov.in/cmsweb/