Curbing Adulteration

As  per Regulation 2.3.6 of Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restriction on Sales) Regulations, 2011, fresh fruits and vegetables shall be free from rotting and free from coating of waxes, mineral oil and colours. The regulations allow that fresh fruits may be coated with bees wax (white and yellow) or carnauba wax or shellac wax at levels not exceeding Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) under proper label declaration as provided in Regulation 2.4.5 (44) of Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations, 2011.

Further, under sub-regulation 2.3.5 of Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restriction on Sales) Regulations, 2011, use of acetylene gas, commonly known as carbide gas, in artificial ripening of fruits is prohibited.  However, the said sub-regulation permits the ripening of fruits by using ethylene gas at a concentration upto 100 ppm (100µ/L) depending upon the crop, variety and maturity.

Food Safety and Standards (Contaminants, Toxins and Residues) Regulations prescribe food commodity specific Maximum Residue Limits/tolerance limits of contaminants, toxins and residues related to pesticides, heavy metals, antibiotics etc.

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has received a study report titled ‘Monitoring of Pesticide residues at National Level’ conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare which has been shared with Commissioner of Food Safety of States/UTs for targeted special enforcement drives particularly at locations where pesticides residues were found to be above maximum residue limits.

States/UT Governments are primarily responsible for ensuring compliance of the provisions of Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Act, 2006 and Rules and Regulations made thereunder.

FSSAI has been urging State/UT Governments to keep a strict vigil by regularly drawing food samples including fruits and vegetables from all sources viz. manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers and to take strict action against the offenders under the provisions of FSS            Act, 2006.

Regular surveillance, monitoring, inspection and sampling of all food items including fruits and vegetables have been carried out by the officials of States/UTs and penal action is taken against non-compliant samples.

As per  information received from State/UT Governments, the details of samples of  fruits/vegetables analysed, found non-conforming and action taken during the last three years are at Annexure I,II and III respectively.

It may, however, be mentioned that the provisions of Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 do not apply to any farmer or fisherman or farming operations or crops or livestock or aquaculture, and supplies used or produced in farming or products of  crops produced by a farmer at farm level or a fisherman in his operations. 

Annexure-I
Testing report data for Fresh Fruits & Vegetable(1st April'16- 31st Mar'17)
State	No. of Samples Analyzed	No. of Samples found Adulterated & Misbranded	No. of Cases Launched		No. of Convictions / Penalties
			Criminal	Civil	Convictions	Penalties no.	Penalties amount
Arunachal Pradesh	3	-	-	-	-	-	-
Dadra & N.H	30	0	0	0	0	0	0
Delhi	24	0	0	0	0	0	0
Goa	89	2	-	-	-	-	-
Haryana	52	3		1	-	-	-
Kerala	49	2	0	0	0	0	0
Madhya Pradesh	8	0	0	0	0	0	0
Maharashtra	159	31	24	0	0	0	0
Puducherry	5	1	-	-	-	-	-
Punjab	38	9	0	0	0	0	0
Tamil Nadu	16	8	3	4	4	5	46000
Telangana	255	130	68	-	-	-	-
Uttar Pradesh	39	7	0	0	0	2	160000
Total	767	193	95	5	4	7	206000

Source: States/UTs

Annexure-II
Testing report data for Fresh Fruits & Vegetable(1st April'17- 31st Mar'18)
State	No. of Samples Analyzed	No. of Samples found Adulterated & Misbranded	No. of Cases Launched		No. of Convictions / Penalties
			Criminal	Civil	Convictions	Penalties no.	Penalties amount
Andhra Pradesh	463	114	67	03	16	06	79500
Bihar	21	01	01	-	-	-	-
Chandigarh	22	-	-	-	-	-	-
Chhattisgarh	04	02	-	-	-	-	-
Goa	91	0	0	0	0	0	0
Gujarat	78	07	01	01	0	0	0
Haryana	24	-	-	02	-	02	8000
Karnataka	08	1	0	0	0	0	0
Kerala	148	07	0	0	0	0	0
Madhya Pradesh	02	0	0	0	0	0	0
Maharashtra	119	08	03	01	0	0	0
Manipur	10	1	-	-	-	-	-
Odisha	16	02	0	0	0	0	0
Punjab	243	14	0	01	0	01	12000
Rajasthan	11	02	0	0	0	0	0
Tamil Nadu	36	18	1	-	-	-	-
Tripura	03	0	0	0	0	0	0
Uttar Pradesh	49	22	01	03	01	03	24000
Total	1348	199	74	11	17	12	123500

Source: States/UTs

Annexure-III
Testing report data for Fresh Fruits & Vegetable (1st April'18- 31st Mar'19)
State	No. of Samples Analyzed	No. of Samples found Adulterated & Misbranded	No. of Cases Launched		No. of Convictions / Penalties
			Criminal	Civil	Convictions	Penalties no.	Penalties amount
Andaman & Nicobar Islands	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
Andhra Pradesh	114	3	28	1	7	11	110000
Assam	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
Bihar	14	-	-	-	-	-	-
Chandigarh	6	-	-	-	-	-	-
Dadra & N.H	24	0	0	0	0	0	0
Delhi	78	17	-	-	-	-	-
Goa	370	12	-	-	-	-	-
Gujarat	58	8	0	6	3	0	0
Haryana	59	2	1	3	0	1	5000
Karnataka	16	1	0	0	0	0	0
Kerala	76	5	6	1	1	0	0
Madhya Pradesh	3	0	0	0	0	0	0
Maharashtra	85	1	1	0	0	0	0
Manipur	14	-	-	-	-	-	-
Punjab	234	60	0	0	0	0	0
Sikkim	3	0	0	0	0	0	0
Tamil Nadu	19	16	8	10	12	21	362500
Telangana	16	5	5	0	0	0	0
Uttar Pradesh	52	13	0	11	9	10	215000
West Bengal	5	2	0	1	1	1	25000
Total	1248	145	49	33	33	44	717500

Source: States/UTs

Courtesy: pib.gov.in