1. Short title, extent and commencement.–(1) This Act may be called the Food Safety and
Standards Act, 2006.
(2) It extends to the whole of India.
(3) It shall come into force on such date1
as the Central Government may, by notification in the
Official Gazette, appoint, and different dates may be appointed for different provisions of this Act and
any reference in any such provision to the commencement of this Act shall be construed as a reference to
the coming into force of that provision.
2. Declaration as to expediency of control by the Union.–It is hereby declared that it is expedient
in the public interest that the Union should take under its control the food industry.
3. Definitions.–(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,–
(a) ―adulterant‖ means any material which is or could be employed for making the food unsafe
or sub-standard or mis-branded or containing extraneous matter;
(b) ―advertisement‖ means any audio or visual publicity, representation or pronouncement made
by means of any light, sound, smoke, gas, print, electronic media, internet or website and includes
through any notice, circular, label, wrapper, invoice or other documents;
(c) ―Chairperson‖ means the Chairperson of the Food Authority;
(d) ―claim‖ means any representation which states, suggests, or implies that a food has particular
qualities relating to its origin, nutritional properties, nature, processing, composition or otherwise;
(e) ―Commissioner of Food Safety‖ means the Commissioner of Food Safety appointed under
section 30;
(f) ―consumer‖ means persons and families purchasing and receiving food in order to meet their
personal needs;
(g) ―contaminant‖ means any substance, whether or not added to food, but which is present in
such food as a result of the production (including operations carried out in crop husbandry, animal
husbandry or veterinary medicine), manufacture, processing, preparation, treatment, packing,
packaging, transport or holding of such food or as a result of environmental contamination and does
not include insect fragments, rodent hairs and other extraneous matter;
1. 28th May, 2008 (ss. 3 and 30), vide notification No. S.O. 1246(E), dated 28th May, 2008, see Gazette of India, Extraordinary,
Part II, sec. 3(ii).
28th August, 2008 (s. 90), vide notification No. S.O. 2127(E), dated 28th August, 2008, see Gazette of India, Extraordinary,
Part II, sec. 3(ii).
18th November, 2008 (ss. 16, 17, 18, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 92 and 93), vide notification No. S.O. 2678(E), dated 18th
November, 2008, see Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, sec. 3(ii).
9th March, 2009 (ss. 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15), vide notification No. S.O. 650(E), dated 9th March, 2009, see Gazette of India,
Extraordinary, Part II, sec. 3(ii).
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(h) ―Designated Officer‖ means the officer appointed under section 36;
(i) ―extraneous matter‖ means any matter contained in an article of food which may be carried
from the raw materials, packaging materials or process systems used for its manufacture or which is
added to it, but such matter does not render such article of food unsafe;
(j) ―Food‖ means any substance, whether processed, partially processed or unprocessed, which is
intended for human consumption and includes primary food to the extent defined in clause (zk),
genetically modified or engineered food or food containing such ingredients, infant food, packaged
drinking water, alcoholic drink, chewing gum, and any substance, including water used into the food
during its manufacture, preparation or treatment but does not include any animal feed, live animals
unless they are prepared or processed for placing on the market for human consumption, plants, prior
to harvesting, drugs and medicinal products, cosmetics, narcotic or psychotropic substances:
Provided that the Central Government may declare, by notification in the Official Gazette, any
other article as food for the purposes of this Act having regards to its use, nature, substance or
quality;
(k) ―food additive‖ means any substance not normally consumed as a food by itself or used as a
typical ingredient of the food, whether or not it has nutritive value, the intentional addition of which
to food for a technological (including organoleptic) purpose in the manufacture, processing,
preparation, treatment, packing, packaging, transport or holding of such food results, or may be
reasonably expected to result (directly or indirectly), in it or its by-products becoming a component
of or otherwise affecting the characteristics of such food but does not include ―contaminants‖ or
substances added to food for maintaining or improving nutritional qualities;
(l) ―Food Analyst‖ means an analyst appointed under section 45;
(m) ―Food Authority‖ means the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India established under
section 4;
(n) ―food business‖ means any undertaking, whether for profit or not and whether public or
private, carrying out any of the activities related to any stage of manufacture, processing, packaging,
storage, transportation, distribution of food, import and includes food services, catering services, sale
of food or food ingredients;
(o) ―food business operator‖ in relation to food business means a person by whom the business is
carried on or owned and is responsible for ensuring the compliance of this Act, rules and regulations
made thereunder;
(p) ―food laboratory‖ means any food laboratory or institute established by the Central or a State
Government or any other agency and accredited by National Accreditation Board for Testing and
Calibration Laboratories or an equivalent accreditation agency and recognised by the Food Authority
under section 43;
(q) ―food safety‖ means assurance that food is acceptable for human consumption according to
its intended use;
(r) ―food safety audit‖ means a systematic and functionally independent examination of food
safety measures adopted by manufacturing units to determine whether such measures and related
results meet with objectives of food safety and the claims made in that behalf;
(s) ―Food Safety Management System‖ means the adoption Good Manufacturing Practices, Good
Hygienic Practices, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point and such other practices as may be
specified by regulation, for the food business;
(t) ―Food Safety Officer‖ means an officer appointed under section 37;
(u) ―hazard‖ means a biological, chemical or physical agent in, or condition of, food with the
potential to cause an adverse health effect;
(v) ―import‖ means bringing into India any article of food by land, sea or air;
(w) ―improvement notice‖ means a notice issued under section 32 of this Act;
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(x) ―infant food‖ and ―infant milk substitute‖ shall have the meanings assigned to them in clauses
(f) and (g) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Infant Milk Substitutes, Feeding Bottles and Infant
Foods (Regulation of Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 1992 (41 of 1992), respectively;
(y) ―ingredient‖ means any substance, including a food additive used in the manufacture or
preparation of food and present in the final product, possibly in a modified form;
(z) ―label‖ means any tag, brand, mark, pictorial or other descriptive matter, written, printed,
stencilled, marked, embossed, graphic, perforated, stamped or impressed on or attached to container,
cover, lid or crown of any food package and includes a product insert;
(za) ―licence‖ means a licence granted under section 31;
(zb) ―local area‖ means any area, whether urban or rural, notified by the Commissioner of Food
Safety, to be a local area for the purposes of this Act;
(zc) ―manufacture‖ means a process or adoption or any treatment for conversion of ingredients
into an article of food, which includes any sub-process, incidental or ancillary to the manufacture of
an article of food;
(zd) ―manufacturer‖ means a person engaged in the business of manufacturing any article of food
for sale and includes any person who obtains such article from another person and packs and labels it
for sale or only labels it for such purposes;
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[(ze) ―Member‖ includes a part-time Member and the Chairperson of the Food Authority;]
(zf) ―misbranded food‖ means an article of food–
(A) if it is purported, or is represented to be, or is being–
(i) offered or promoted for sale with false, misleading or deceptive claims either;
(a) upon the label of the package, or
(b) through advertisement, or
(ii) sold by a name which belongs to another article of food; or
(iii) offered or promoted for sale under the name of a fictitious individual or company as
the manufacturer or producer of the article as borne on the package or containing the article
or the label on such package; or
(B) if the article is sold in packages which have been sealed or prepared by or at the instance
of the manufacturer or producer bearing his name and address but–
(i) the article is an imitation of, or is a substitute for, or resembles in a manner likely to
deceive, another article of food under the name of which it is sold, and is not plainly and
conspicuously labelled so as to indicate its true character; or
(ii) the package containing the article or the label on the package bears any statement,
design or device regarding the ingredients or the substances contained therein, which is false
or misleading in any material particular, or if the package is otherwise deceptive with respect
to its contents; or
(iii) the article is offered for sale as the product of any place or country which is false; or
(C) if the article contained in the package–
(i) contains any artificial flavouring, colouring or chemical preservative and the package
is without a declaratory label stating that fact or is not labelled in accordance with the
requirements of this Act or regulations made thereunder or is in contravention thereof; or
(ii) is offered for sale for special dietary uses, unless its label bears such information as
may be specified by regulation, concerning its vitamins, minerals or other dietary properties
in order sufficiently to inform its purchaser as to its value for such use; or
1. Subs.by Act 13 of 2008, s. 2, for cl. (ze) (w.e.f. 7-2-2008).
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(iii) is not conspicuously or correctly stated on the outside thereof within the limits of
variability laid down under this Act.
(zg) ―notification‖ means a notification published in the Official Gazette;
(zh) ―package‖ means a pre-packed box, bottle, casket, tin, barrel, case, pouch, receptacle, sack,
bag, wrapper or such other things in which an article of food is packed;
(zi) ―premises‖ include any shop, stall, hotel, restaurant, airline services and food canteens, place
or vehicle or vessel where any article of food is sold or manufactured or stored for sale;
(zj) ―prescribed‖ means prescribed by rules made by the Central Government or the State
Government, as the case may be under this Act;
(zk) ―primary food‖ means an article of food, being a produce of agriculture or horticulture or
animal husbandry and dairying or aquaculture in its natural form, resulting from the growing, raising,
cultivation, picking, harvesting, collection or catching in the hands of a person other than a farmer or
fisherman;
(zl) ―prohibition order‖ means an order issued under section 33 of this Act;
(zm) ―risk‖, in relation to any article of food, means the probability of an adverse effect on the
health of consumers of such food and the severity of that effect, consequential to a food hazard;
(zn) ―risk analysis‖, in relation to any article of food, means a process consisting of three
components, i.e. risk assessment, risk management and risk communication;
(zo) ―risk assessment‖ means a scientifically based process consisting of the following steps:
(i) hazard identification, (ii) hazard characterisation; (iii) exposure assessment, and (iv) risk
haracterisation;
(zp) ―risk communication‖ means the interactive exchange of information and opinions
throughout the risk analysis process concerning risks, risk-related factors and risk perceptions,
among risk assessors, risk managers, consumers, industry, the academic community and other
interested parties, including the explanation of risk assessment findings and the basis of risk
management decisions;
(zq) ―risk management‖ means the process, distinct from risk assessment, of evaluating policy
alternatives, in consultation with all interested parties considering risk assessment and other factors
relevant for the protection of health of consumers and for the promotion of fair trade practices, and, if
needed, selecting appropriate prevention and control options;
(zr) ―sale‖ with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions, means the sale of any article
of food, whether for cash or on credit or by way of exchange and whether by wholesale or retail, for
human consumption or use, or for analysis, and includes an agreement for sale, an offer for sale, the
exposing for sale or having in possession for sale of any such article, and includes also an attempt to
sell any such article;
(zs) ―sample‖ means a sample of any article of food taken under the provisions of this Act or any
rules and regulations made thereunder;
(zt) ―specified by regulations‖ means specified by regulations made by the Food Authority;
(zu) ―standard‖, in relation to any article of food, means the standards notified by the Food
Authority;
(zv) ―State Government‖ in relation to a Union territory means the Administrator of that Union
territory appointed by the President under article 239 of the Constitution;
(zw) ―substance‖ includes any natural or artificial substance or other matter, whether it is in a
solid state or in liquid form or in the form of gas or vapour;
(zx) ―sub-standard‖ an article of food shall be deemed to be sub-standard if it does not meet the
specified standards but not so as to render the article of food unsafe;
(zy) ―Tribunal‖ means the Food Safety Appellate Tribunal established under section 70;
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(zz) ―unsafe food‖ means an article of food whose nature, substance or quality is so affected as to
render it injurious to health:—
(i) by the article itself, or its package thereof, which is composed, whether wholly or in
part, of poisonous or deleterious substances; or
(ii) by the article consisting, wholly or in part, of any filthy, putrid, rotten, decomposed
or diseased animal substance or vegetable substance; or
(iii) by virtue of its unhygienic processing or the presence in that article of any harmful
substance; or
(iv) by the substitution of any inferior or cheaper substance whether wholly or in part; or
(v) by addition of a substance directly or as an ingredient which is not permitted; or
(vi) by the abstraction, wholly or in part, of any of its constituents; or
(vii) by the article being so coloured, flavoured or coated, powdered or polished, as to
damage or conceal the article or to make it appear better or of greater value than it really is;
or
(viii) by the presence of any colouring matter or preservatives other than that specified in
respect thereof; or
(ix) by the article having been infected or infested with worms, weevils, or insects; or
(x) by virtue of its being prepared, packed or kept under insanitary conditions; or
(xi) by virtue of its being mis-branded or sub-standard or food containing extraneous
matter; or
(xii) by virtue of containing pesticides and other contaminants in excess of quantities
specified by regulations.
(2) Any reference in this Act to a law which is not in force in the State of Jammu and Kashmir shall,
in relation to that State, be construed as a reference to the corresponding Law, if any, in force in that
State.