Parliament Question: Adulteration in food items causing severe impact on health

GOVERNMENTOFINDIA MINISTRYOFHEALTH AND FAMILYWELFARE DEPARTMENT OFHEALTH AND FAMILYWELFARE RAJYASABHA UNSTARREDQUESTION NO.1243 TOBE ANSWERED ON10th FEBRUARY,2026 ADULTERATION IN FOOD ITEMS CAUSING SEVERE IMPACT ON HEALTH 1243. SHRI NEERAJ SHEKHAR: Will the Ministerof HEALTHANDFAMILYWELFAREbe pleasedtostate: (a) whether Government is aware of the rampant adulteration in food items which is causing severe impact on health and healthcare system of the country; (b) if so, the details of cases of food adulteration reported/registered during the last two years and the current year, so far, year-wise and State-wise; and (c) the steps Government would take to check food adulteration in the country including the legislation in this regard? ANSWER THE MINISTER OFSTATE IN THE MINISTRYOFHEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE (SHRIPRATAPRAO JADHAV) (a) to (c): Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is mandated to lay 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 implementation andenforcement of the FoodSafety and Standards(FSS) Act, 2006isa shared responsibility betweenthe Central andStateGovernments. FSSAI through its regional offices and States/UTs food safety departments, conducts surveillance,inspection, monitoringandrandom sampling tocheck& verify compliancewith the standards & requirements laid down under the FSS Act, 2006 & regulations made thereunder. FSSAI isresponsible for layingdown science-based standards andensuring overall coordination, the StateFood SafetyAuthoritiesare primarilyresponsible for enforcement at the fieldlevel.To ensure compliance with the set standards, limits, & other statutory requirements under the Act and regulations made thereunder, FSSAI, through its 4 (four) Regional Offices and State/UT food safety authorities conducts regular localized/targeted special enforcement and surveillance drives. To ensure the quality and safety of food and food products through testing, FSSAI has notified 246 National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories for primary analysis of food samples and 24 Referral Food Laboratories, for the analysis of appellate samples.To address the deficiency of food testing infrastructure in remote areas and to improve consumer access to such services, there are Mobile Food Testing Laboratories, known as Food Safety on Wheels (FSWs) at the State/UT levels. Currently, 305 FSWs are deployed across 35 States/ UTs. These mobile labs are equipped to perform basic tests for common adulterants in food products. These multipurpose vehicles not onlyserve asmobile testing unitsbut also playa vitalrole inspreading food safety awareness andprovide trainingprogrammes. Details of enforcement actionon various food safety issues (including food adulteration) in the FY 2023-24, FY 2024-25 and FY 2025-26 (so far) is annexed at Annexure-I and Annexure-II,respectively ********Annexure-I Detailsof enforcementactiononvariousfoodsafetyissues(includingfoodadulteration) FY2023-24 FY2024-25 S. No.of State/UT No.of No. of No. ofSamples No. Samples Samples Samples foundnon- foundnon- Analysed Analysed conforming conforming 1 AndamanAndNicobarIslands 0 0 810 4 2 AndhraPradesh 6439 472 5984 514 3 ArunachalPradesh 501 11 125 9 4 Assam 1139 125 1705 234 5 Bihar 2806 126 2863 124 6 Chandigarh 311 49 374 65 7 Chhattisgarh 1373 167 2069 270 DadraandNagarHaveli& 8 185 0 56 0 Daman&Diu 9 Delhi 3412 150 2624 130 10 Goa 599 16 1172 74 11 Gujarat 15841 910 12387 901 12 Haryana 3485 856 2233 500 13 HimachalPradesh 1618 401 1587 293 14 Jammu&Kashmir 9057 750 6955 651 15 Jharkhand 384 292 364 138 16 Karnataka 5492 286 9371 662 17 Kerala 10792 1304 10767 1635 18 Ladakh 638 11 417 45 19 Lakshadweep 0 0 0 0 20 MadhyaPradesh 13998 2022 13920 1635 21 Maharashtra 5087 1174 5403 1250 22 Manipur 168 3 126 1 23 Meghalaya 123 7 388 5 24 Mizoram 0 0 0 2 25 Nagaland 138 3 223 11 26 Orissa 2003 252 2282 273 27 Puducherry 31 0 173 0 28 Punjab 6041 929 4131 748 29 Rajasthan 18536 3493 13840 3788 30 Sikkim 231 0 254 0 31 TamilNadu 18146 2237 18071 2240 32 Telangana 6156 973 3347 324 33 Tripura 87 0 123 5 34 UttarPradesh 27750 16183 30380 16500 35 Uttarakhand 1998 192 1509 140 36 WestBengal 5948 414 14502 1217 Total 1,70,513 33808 1,70,535 34,388Annexure-II Detailsof enforcementactiononvariousfoodsafetyissues(includingfoodadulteration) intheFY2025-26(tilldate) No. ofSamples foundnon- Year No.of Samples Analysed conforming 2025-26 1,55,306 27,567* *The dataforFY2025–26isprovisional.