To meet a country’s sanitary and phytosanitary requirements, food must comply with the local laws and regulations to gain market access. These laws ensure the safety and suitability of food for consumers, in some countries; also govern food quality and composition standards.

1. Food Safety and Standards Act
Submitted to:-
Dr. Anil Chauhan
Professor
CFST, BHU
Submitted By:-
Sukhveer Singh
M.Sc. Final Year

2.  To meet a country’s sanitary and phytosanitary
requirements, food must comply with the local
laws and regulations to gain market access. These
laws ensure the safety and suitability of food for
consumers, in some countries; also govern food
quality and composition standards.
 The requirement of food regulation may be based
on several factors such as whether a country
adopts international norms developed by the
Codex Alimentarius Commission of the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
and the World Health Organization; good
agricultural and manufacturing practices; or a
country may also has its own suite of food
regulations.
Food laws and Regulations

3.  Each country regulates food differently and has its
own food
 regulatory framework. Usually more than one
agency is involved in food regulations e.g. health
and agriculture, they may have centralized or
regionally controlled food regulations, and
different agencies may be involved in enforcement
activities

4. The Indian Parliament has recently passed the
Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 that
overrides all other food related laws. It will
specifically repeal eight laws:
1.The Prevention of Food Adulteration Act,
1954
2.The Fruit Products Order, 1955
3.The Meat Food Products Order, 1973

5. 4. The Vegetable Oil Products (Control)
Order, 1947
5. The Edible Oils Packaging (Regulation)
Order, 1998
6. The Solvent Extracted Oil, De oiled
Meal, and Edible Flour (Control) Order,
1967
7. The Milk and Milk Products Order, 1992
8. Essential Commodities Act, 1955
relating to food

6.  PFA (Prevention of Food Adulteration Act)
protects India against impure, unsafe, and
fraudulently labelled foods.
 The PFA standards and regulations apply
equally to domestic and imported products and
cover various aspects of food processing and
distribution. These include food colour,
preservatives, pesticide residues, packaging
and labelling, and regulation of sales.
 The PFA focuses primarily on the establishment
of regulatory standards for primary food
products, which constitute the bulk of the
Indian diet.

7.  PFA rules sometimes appear to be
drafted in a manner that goes beyond
the mere establishment of minimum
product quality specifications, by
prescribing recipes for how food
products are to be manufactured.
 There is an appeals process for
amending rules, although this is time-
consuming. The Central Committee for
Food Standards, chaired by the Director
General of Health Services, is the
decision-making entity Syrups.

8.  Standards for weights and measures are
administered by the Ministry of Consumer
Affairs, Food and Public Distribution under
the Standards of Weights and Measures Act,
1976 and related rules and notifications.
 All weights or measures must be recorded in
metric units and certain commodities can
only be packed in specified quantities
(weight, measure or number). These include
baby and weaning food, biscuits, bread,
butter, coffee, tea, vegetable oils, milk
powder, and wheat and rice flour.
Weights and measures

9. At the time of importation (the
commercial activity of buying and
bringing in goods from a foreign country)
food products are required to have a valid
shelf life, or residual shelf life, of not less
than 60 per cent of their original shelf
life.
Shelf life

10.  The fruit and vegetable processing sector
is regulated by the Fruit Products Order,
1955 (FPO), which is administered by the
Department of Food Processing Industries.
 The FPO contains specifications and
quality control requirements regarding the
production and marketing of processed
fruits and vegetables, sweetened aerated
water, vinegar, and synthetic syrups.
Fruit Products Order

11.  All such processing units are required to
obtain a license under the FPO, and
periodic inspections are carried out.
Processed fruit and vegetable products
imported into the country must meet
the FPO standards.

12.  Specifies sanitation and hygiene requirements
for slaughterhouses and manufacturers of meat
products.
 Contains packing, marking and labeling
provisions for containers of meat products.
 Defines the permissible quantity of heavy
metals, preservatives, and insecticide residues
in meat products.
 The Directorate of Marketing and Inspection at
the Ministry of Agriculture is the regulatory
authority for the order, which is equally
applicable to domestic processors and importers
of meat products.
Meat Food Products Order

13.  The Vegetable Oil Products industry is regulated
by this Order through the Directorate of
Vanaspati, Vegetable Oils & Fats, Department of
Food, Public Distribution, Ministry of Consumer
Affairs, and Food & Public Distribution.
 The earlier two Orders – Vegetable Oil Products
(Control) Order, 1947 and Vegetable Oil Products
(Standards of Quality) Order, 1975 have been
replaced by a single Order called “Vegetable Oil
Products (Regulation) Order, 1998 for proper
regulation of manufacture, distribution and sale
of Vegetable Oil Products.
Vegetable Oil Products
Order

14. 1) The procedure of Registration has been
simplified.
2) The Standards of quality prescribed
under the Schedule have been tightened.
3) The requirement where which are vogue
and non measurable and thus open to
arbitrary interpretation have been done
away with.
4) Consumers’ protection through quality
assured.
Salient Features of the Order:

15. In order to ensure availability of safe and quality edible oils in
packed form at pre-determined prices to the consumers, the
Central Govt. promulgated on 17th September, 1998, an Edible
Oils Packaging (Regulation) Order, 1998 under the Essential
Commodities Act, 1955 to make packaging of edible oils, sold in
retail, compulsory unless specifically exempted by the concerned
State Govt.
Salient Features
 Edible oils including edible mustard oil will be allowed to be sold
only in packed form from 15th December, 1998.
 Packers will have to register themselves with a registering
authority.
 The packer will have to have his own analytical facilities or
adequate arrangements for testing the samples of edible oils to
the satisfaction of the Government.
Edible Oils Packaging

16.  Only oils which conform to the standards of
quality as specified in the Prevention of Food
Adulteration Act, 1954 and Rules made there
under will be allowed to be packed.
 Each container or pack will have to show all
relevant particulars so that the consumer is not
misled, so also the identity of the packer
becomes clear.
 Edible oils shall be packed in conformity with the
Standards of Weights and Measures (Packaged
Commodities) Rules, 1977, and the Prevention of
Food Adulteration Act, 1954 and Rules made there
under.
 The State Governments will have power to relax
any requirement of the packaging order for
meeting special circumstances.

17.  The Order is basically a quality control
order to ensure that the solvent extracted
oils in particular are not reached to the
consumers for consumption before the same
are refined and conformed to the quality
standards specified in the Order for the
purpose. Standards for the solvent
(hexane), which is to be used for extraction
of oil from the oil-bearing materials, have
also been specified so as to eliminate
possible contamination of oil from the
solvent used.
Solvent Extracted Oil, De-
oiled Meal and Edible Flour
(Control) Order

18.  Governs the manufacture, quality and movement of
solvent extracted oils, de-oiled meal and edible
flour;
 Consumer protection through quality assurance of
solvent extracted oils, de-oiled meal and edible
flour;
 Eliminates the possibility of diversion of the oils for
uses not intended.
 Prohibit by, offer to buy, use or stock for use, any
solvent not conforming to the quality standards for
extraction of vegetable oils, and Specifies
particulars to be declared on the label affixed to
the container
Salient Features

19.  The Govt. of India had promulgated the Milk and Milk
Product Order (MMPO) 1992 on 9.06.1992 under the provisions of
Essential commodity Act, 1955 consequent to
de-licencing of the Dairy sector in 1991.
 AS per the provisions of this order, any person/dairy plat
handling more than 10000 liters per day of milk or 500 MT of
milk solids per annum needs to be registered with the
registering authority appointed by the Central Government.
 The main objective of the order is to maintain and increase
in supply of liquid milk of desired quality in the interests of
the general public and also for regulating the production,
processing and distribution of milk and milk Products.
Milk and Milk Product Order

20.  Recognizing the necessity for suitable amendments in
Milk and Milk Product Order 1992 for faster pace of
growth in the Dairy sector, Govt. of India has amended
Milk and Milk Product Order 1992 from time to time in
order to make it more liberal and oriented to facilitate
the dairy entrepreneurs.
 The Govt. of India has notified the amendment
proposals in the official gazette on 26/03/2002. Now
there is no restriction on setting up of new capacity,
while noting that the requirement of registration is for
enforcing the prescribed standards of quality and food
safety.

21. The salient features of the new amendments made
are as follows:
 The provision of assigning milkshed has been done
away with.
 The registrations under MMPO-92 will now cover
sanitary, hygienic condition, quality and food safety.
 The provision of inspection of dairy plant has been
made flexible.
 The provision to grant registration in 90 days has been
reduced to 45 days.
 The power of registration of State registering
Authority has been raised from 1.00 LLPD to 2.00
LLPD.
 Altogether the Central and the State Registering
Authorities have registered 688 units with combined
capacity of 803.74 LLPD in Cooperative, Private and
Government Sector as on 31.3.2003.

22. (a) “essential commodity” means any of the following classes of
commodities:
(i) cattle fodder, including oil-cakes and other concentrates;
(ii) coal including coke and other derivatives;
(iii) component parts and accessories of automobiles;
(iv) cotton and woollen textiles;
(iv-a) drugs.
(v) foodstuffs including edible oil-seeds and oils;
(vi) iron and steel, including manufactured products of iron and
steel;
(vii) paper including newsprint, paper board and straw board;
(viii) petroleum and petroleum products;
(ix) raw cotton, and whether ginned or unginned, and cotton
seed;
(x) raw jute;
Essential Commodities Act

23. (xi) any other class of commodity which the
Central Government may, by notified order,
declare to be an essential commodity for the
purposes of this Act, being a commodity with
respect to which Parliament has power to make
laws by virtue of Entry 33 in List III of the
Seventh Schedule to the Constitution.
(b) “food-crops” include crops of sugarcane;
(c) “notified order” means an order notified in
the Official Gazette;
(cc) “order” includes a direction issued
thereunder;
(d) “State Government”, in relation to a Union
territory, means the administration thereof;

24. (e) “sugar” means —
(i) any form of sugar containing more than
ninety per cent of sucrose, including, sugar
candy;
(ii) Khandsari sugar or bura sugar or crushed
sugar or any sugar in crystalline or
powdered form; or
(iii) sugar in process in vacuum-pan factory
or raw sugar produced therein.