Fortifying the frontiers of food safety

Food safety regulation has always been driven with public welfare at its heart, with the “duty of care” as the guiding doctrine. The Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 (‘the Act’) lays the foundation to this framework, with public welfare at its core to explore a science-based, risk-proportionate regime that covers manufacturing, processing, storage, distribution, sale, and import of food articles, while subordinate regulations govern licensing, product standards, labelling, packaging, and additives.

The reach of the Act is deliberately broad - covering processed, partially processed and unprocessed substances intended for human consumption, as well as primary food, genetically modified food, infant food, packaged drinking water, alcoholic beverages, chewing gum and substances—including water—used during manufacture or preparation of any food stuff [Section 3(1)(j)]. The compliance net also sweeps far and wide, covering cultivators, ingredient suppliers, manufacturers, processors, importers, distributors, e-commerce entities, quick-commerce intermediaries, retailers, dark stores, online marketplaces, and any participating intermediaries until final delivery.  

The recent spate of reported raids testifies to this ecosystem: every plate is shaped by a long chain of decisions, many of them invisible to the consumer:

• Manufacturing facilities: Producers and manufacturers have faced action over hygiene failures, pest control, expired or rejected materials and inadequate segregation of raw materials and finished goods. Alcoholic beverage manufacturers and distributors channels have also been investigated about flavouring substances, additives or composition.

• Hospitality industry: Eateries, hotels and restaurants have been inspected for allegedly stocking expired ingredients, fungal growth, cross-contamination, improper labelling and unhygienic kitchen conditions. This shows that the standard of compliance expected from hospitality establishments applies to the entire environment for preparation and storage.

• Stockists, retailers and warehouses: Traders who import and deal in foodstuff have been in the radar. Notices have been issued concerning storage conditions, pest infestation, expired or damaged stock, food stored directly on the floor, rusted racks, and poor pest-control systems.

• Quick-commerce platforms and e-commerce operators: These platforms have been scrutinised for inventory management in the face of hyperlocal deliveries, and customer-grievance mechanisms.

The Act establishes a comprehensive regime supported by the Food Safety and Standards Rules, 2011 (‘FSS Rules’), product-specific regulations, notifications, directions and advisories. The Act is jointly administered by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (‘FSSAI’) and State Food Authorities, comprising Food Safety Officers, Designated Officers, Commissioners of Food Safety, adjudicating officers. The Act empowers the authorities to inspect, sample and seize products for quality checks [Section 38, 41, 32(3)].

Provisioning for labelling and packaging standards, any misleading claims would invite action under Sections 23 and 24. Concerns relating to product-composition may bring Sections 19, 20, 21 and 22 into play, while imports of food products which do not conform with prescribed standards would trigger action under Section 25. Unsafe, sub-standard, expired, food, invites stricter action under Sections 26 and 27, fixing the mantle on Food Business Operators (“FBOs”) to ensure compliance. Curable deficiencies such as labelling defects, storage or segregation issues are pointed out through an ‘Improvement Notice’ under Section 32, for the FBO to remedy the defects. Section 28 requires FBOs to recall any ‘unsafe’ articles that had been processed, manufactured or distributed.

Serious violations are met with penalties or prosecution under Chapter IX and Section 42, which provides the procedure for launching prosecution. The Act permits compounding under Section 69 for minor offences involving petty manufacturers, retailers, hawkers, itinerant vendors and temporary stall holders. Offences for which imprisonment is prescribed are not compoundable.

Much like recipes demand moderation, proportionality of action while dealing with alleged food offences is also enfolded in the law and any directives for closure or suspension of business must be proportional to the deficiency that is identified and rectified. [Pind Punjab v. Union of India, Writ Petition No. 8360 of 2026, Order dated 16.07.2026, Hotel Pawan Bar & Restaurant v. State of Maharashtra Writ Petition No. 9891 of 2026, Order dated 03.08.2026]

Given the wide sweep of the food-safety framework, any compliance touchpoints under the FSSAI framework will simultaneously activate obligations under other regulatory regimes. For instance, labelling that could be deemed a violation under the FSS framework may simultaneously present complications under the Legal Metrology Act, 2009 or under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019. It may be useful for industries to evolve a model so that FSSAI compliance forms part of a comprehensive matrix across allied regulatory regimes. Illustratively,

• Packaging and Labelling Mandates: The Legal Metrology Act, 2009 and the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011 mandate declarations such as net quantity, MRP, consumer-care details, unit sale price and other mandatory packaged-commodity information. The rigors of these Rules defer to the requirements under the FSS Act the FSS (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations, 2011. A consignment of imported Guylian chocolates was detained at ICD Dadri where part of the consignment was alleged to be non-compliant with the Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations, 2011 for not mentioning the date of manufacture, while another part raised an issue over the standards of the consignment, relating to vegetable fat in filled chocolates under the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011. The Delhi High Court permitted the labelling defect to be cured by the FBO, requiring the FBO to affix a non-detachable label within the customs warehouse, so that the consignment could be cleared.

• Customs law and export/ import procedure: As all imports of food are subject to the Act, FSSAI’s Food Import Clearance System is integrated with Customs ICEGATE under the SWIFT framework16, with the FSSAI manning more than 60 points of entries for document scrutiny, inspection, sampling and testing. In one situation, the Customs authorities denied clearance for consignments of imported lactic culture(s) used for direct inoculation into milk for preparing yoghurt and fermented milk products as FSSAI refused to issue a ‘No objection’. FSSAI claimed that the “List of Ingredients” was not mentioned on the label, and that this list of ingredients was necessary for FSSAI to assess the safety of the product. Ultimately, considering that the goods were meant for industrial use in the further manufacture of food (and was not intended for direct human consumption), the Court directed the FSSAI to examine the goods and issue an NOC if the existent labels otherwise satisfied the standards.

• Environmental and waste-management laws: The extant guidelines on lawful disposal of seized, expired, rejected or recalled food, packaging waste, plastic-waste obligations must be in accordance with State Pollution Control Boards. Expired dairy products, rejected edible oil or contaminated packaged snacks cannot simply be dumped – they must be disposed of through approved means such as incineration, sanitary landfill, composting or anaerobic digestion.

• Advertising regulations and misbranding: Performance claims in the nature of nutritive benefits (immunity, therapeutic), purity quotients, origin (organic, natural), or performance claims under FSSAI regulations would also trigger action under the consumer-protection framework [The Consumer Protection Act, 2019] and applicable advertising standards. In a situation where the product was marketed as “ORS”, but it did not conform to the WHO-recommended formulation for Oral Rehydration Salts. The Delhi High Court held that the label could cause a consumer to confuse a food product with WHO-recommended Oral Rehydration Salts. Regardless of the fact that the product itself was not harmful, the “misbranding” could raise public health concerns if consumers consumed the product believing it to alleviate diarrhoea or gastroenteritis.

• Regulations for e-commerce platforms and intermediaries: Intermediaries must show necessary conformity with marketplace disclosures, country-of-origin declarations, dark-store inventory controls, platform-level due diligence and responsibilities of online food sellers. The PC Rules have enforced obligations unto e-commerce FBOs with specific notations for seller applications and buyer applications. Seller apps must ensure hygiene grading, product information, shelf-life details, invoice-level FSSAI details, and must delist non-compliant products or misleading claims. Buyer apps must display the information provided by seller apps, prevent listing of expired products, enable digital invoices, provide complaint registration and tracking, and forward complaints to seller apps where required. Moreover, the FSSAI also requires e-commerce FBOs to strengthen last-mile delivery hygiene, train delivery personnel, and ensure separate delivery of food and non-food items, as well as to prevent cross-contamination.  It also directs that online product claims must match the product’s physical label and that products delivered to consumers have at least 30% shelf life or 45 days before expiry. There is a requirement that no e-commerce FBO list sellers on its platform without displaying their valid FSSAI License or Registration. It also encourages the operators to prominently display hygiene ratings to enhance consumer trust.

• Overarching general compliances: Concomitant obligations arise under the Company laws, particularly for listed companies that are required to disclose regulatory actions under the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015. In addition, businesses must consider the appropriate GST classification of the product and invoicing requirements, obtaining the appropriate permits from municipal health authorities.

Alongside the typical contractual guardrails for limitation of liability, indemnity, etc. Supply contracts and vendor agreements may build in party-specific obligations like batch traceability, recall cooperation, return, replacement, delisting of product, etc. All the same, one’s responsibility cannot be outsourced through disclaimer clauses. This becomes all the more significant when considering the regime for vicarious liability, be it for Companies or for their KMP. Hence, it is imperative for entities to develop responsive and risk-mitigation strategies, moving from an event-based compliance to system-based compliance:

• Establish inspection and raid protocols identifying responsible personnel, document custodians, and communication channels.

• Document a control list for claims and labels of each product.

• Institute traceability and recall systems capable of identifying affected batches and communicating promptly with distributors, platforms and consumers.

• Curate a procurement list, to include only FSS compliant vendors and suppliers.

• Establish internal controls through vendor accountability mechanisms, product traceability systems, employee training and prompt corrective action.

Ultimately, the objective is to engender a culture of accountability across the food ecosystem and to foster confidence. An environment of responsive governance modelled on transparent supply chains, accurate product claims and effective traceability is instrumental to serving the ‘duty of care’ with integrity.

About the authors: Krithika Jaganathan is a Partner, Vishal Sundar. M. V. is a Principal Associate and Nirupama Shankar is a Senior Associate at Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan attorneys.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s). The opinions presented do not necessarily reflect the views of Bar & Bench.

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