Parliament Question: Data on Contamination of Food under PM POSHAN Scheme

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION AND LITERACY LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO- 2593 ANSWERED ON- 09.03.2026 Data on Contamination of Food under PM POSHAN Scheme †2593. Shri Rajesh Ranjan: Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state: (a) whether the Government maintains national-level data on incidents of illness caused by contamination under the PM POSHAN Scheme during the last five years, if so, the details thereof, State/Union Territory-wise; (b) the details of the monitoring, inspection and audit mechanisms established by the Government to ensure food safety and hygiene under the Scheme in the country; (c) whether any assessment has been made regarding shortcomings in the implementation of food safety and hygiene guidelines issued under the PM POSHAN Scheme in the country, if so, the details thereof; (d) the details of the corrective measures taken/proposed to be taken by the Government to strengthen real-time monitoring, quality checks and accountability mechanisms under PM POSHAN in the country; and (e) the timelines and targets set to strengthen the food safety and grievance redressal system under PM POSHAN? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (SHRI JAYANT CHAUDHARY) (a) to (e): During the last 5 years a total of eleven (11) incidents of contaminated food have been reported under PM POSHAN Scheme including 3 in Bihar (2024), 2 in Delhi (2023), 2 in Odisha (2022, 2024), 2 in Rajasthan (2025), 1 in Uttar Pradesh (2021) and 1 in West Bengal (2023). Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN) Scheme is one of the foremost rights based Centrally Sponsored Scheme implemented in partnership with the States and Union Territories (UTs) for providing one hot cooked and nutritious meal to all children studying in Bal Vatika (just before class-I) and classes I to VIII of Government and Government-aided schools. The Scheme covers about 11 crore children in more than 10.35 lakh schools in all the States/ UTs. The overall responsibility for providing hot cooked and nutritious meal to the eligible children lies with the State Governments and Union Territory Administrations The Government of India has issued detailed guidelines on quality, safety and hygiene to ensure serving of good quality nutritious meal under the Scheme. All the States/ UTs are advised toadhere to these Guidelines. These guidelines are available on official website https://pmposhan.education.gov.in. These guidelines, inter-alia, provides for instructions to schools to procure Agmark quality and branded items for preparation of meals, training to Cook- cum-Helpers, tasting of meals by members of School Management Committee including at least one teacher before serving the hot meal to children. Further, it provides for testing of food samples by Government Food Research Laboratory or any laboratory accredited or recognized by law to ensure that the meals meet nutritional standards and quality. The Food Corporation of India (FCI) is given responsibility for making available food grains of best available quality, meeting the parameters of Fair Average Quality (FAQ). The Guidelines, inter-alia, provides for training of Cook-cum-Helpers on nutrition, cooking processes, health and hygiene, preparation of raw grains and vegetables, recipes, serving skills etc. States/ UTs provide training to CCHs in collaboration with Institutes of Hotel Management, Food Craft Institutes, FSSAI, State Universities etc. Many States/ UTs conduct Cooking Competitions and also give cash prizes to the winners to encourage them to cook varied and nutritious meals. The States and UTs are encouraged to decide menu suitable to the local conditions within the prescribed nutrition and food norms and to procure locally grown food items like millets, vegetables, condiments etc. The guidelines also envisage for all children in the school to wash their hands with soap. As per the extant guidelines of the PM Poshan Scheme States/UTs are required to conduct Social Audit in all districts in at least 20 schools or 2% of the schools, whichever is higher for each district. The responsibility for taking action and ensuring compliance on the Social Audit findings rests with the State/ UTs. States/ UTs have conducted social audits in 32,664 schools across the country. Further, the States/ UTs through their designated officials have conducted inspections in 9.78 lakh schools. The State/ UTs have conducted 25,389 testing of meals across the country. The scheme also provides elaborate monitoring mechanism i.e. Empowered Committee under the Chairpersonship of Hon’ble Union Education Minister, Programme Approval Board (PAB) under the Chairpersonship of Secretary (DoSE&L), State Steering-cum-Monitoring Committee under the Chairpersonship of Chief Secretary, District level Steering-cum- Monitoring Committee under the Chairpersonship of District Collector. The PM Poshan Guidelines provides a District Level Committee under the Chairmanship of senior most Member of Parliament (MP) of the district to monitor the scheme on quarterly basis. *****