Performance Audit on Food Safety and Standards Act in Madhya Pradesh (2014-2019)

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AuthorCAG of India
Date Accessioned2024-06-23T03:16:44Z
Date Available2024-06-23T03:16:44Z
Date of Publication21-12-2021
AbstractFood Safety and Standards (FSS) Act, 2006 regulates the manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import of food to ensure availability of safe and wholesome food for human consumption. Performance audit of its implementation revealed that the existing legal framework was deficient, as the Government of Madhya Pradesh (GoMP) did not establish separate Food Safety Appellate Tribunal (FSAT) and also separate special or ordinary courts for trial of offences as required under the Act/Rules, despite increase in appeal and serious cases pending in District & Sessions Judges’ court and Chief Judicial Magistrates’ court respectively as of February 2020. The administrative machinery was also lacking, as all the important posts including Commissioner, Food Safety, Designated Officers (DOs) etc. necessary for overseeing the implementation of FSS Act were held as additional charge. Manpower vacancies of 61 per cent at various levels further crippled the Department in conducting survey and inspections of Food Business Operators (FBOs), which is critical to ensure compliance with the Act. The Department could not ensure collection of penalties of INR 3.64 crore imposed under the Act and also did not initiate RRC proceedings against the defaulter FBOs. Other issues of non-maintenance of database of FBOs, pendency of applications for license/registration, FBOs operating fair price shops, liquor shops etc. without licenses, fewer number of regulatory samples drawn and analysed and shortfall in analysis of surveillance samples were noticed. Existence of robust testing infrastructure is intrinsic to the objective of food safety. However, the State Food Laboratory (SFL), Bhopal was not completely upgraded for microbiological testing and food labs at Indore and Ujjain were also not upgraded which affected the food analysis work. The Department also took no action to establish level 2 food labs at three places in the State. The CFS at State level and DOs at district levels did not generate the list of defaulters from the Food Licensing & Registration System (FLRS) software to ascertain expired licenses/ registrations.
Identifier URIhttps://resourcerepository.azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/handle/apurr/398
LanguageEnglish
PublisherCAG of India
Series1 of 2021
TitlePerformance Audit on Food Safety and Standards Act in Madhya Pradesh (2014-2019)
SubtitleFor the Period 2014-19
Item TypeAudit Report
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