NDA (I) 2017 General Ability Test · Question 64 of 149

Correct — C, FSSAI. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India is a statutory body created by the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 and working under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. That Act pulled together the scattered older food laws, the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act of 1954 among them, into a single framework, and FSSAI is the authority that lays down science-based standards for articles of food and regulates their manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import. The authority was formed in 2008 and was in full operation well before this paper was set in 2017. Of the four names offered, it is the only Indian body with the statutory power to frame and enforce food law in the country.

• (a)FDA — In the setting of this question FDA stands for the Food and Drug Administration of the United States, which has no jurisdiction in India. Some Indian states do run their own food and drug administrations that carry out enforcement locally, but they act under the Food Safety and Standards Act, whose national authority is FSSAI.
• (b)WHO — The World Health Organization is the United Nations agency for public health. It issues guidance and, with the Food and Agriculture Organization, runs the Codex Alimentarius that sets international food standards, but it has no power to enforce law inside a member country.
• (d)FAO — The Food and Agriculture Organization is the United Nations agency for food and agriculture. Like the World Health Organization it advises and sets international reference standards through the Codex, but enforcement within India is a matter for Indian law and Indian authorities.

India regulates food through the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, which consolidated a set of older laws and orders and set up a single national authority. FSSAI frames standards and regulations, licenses and registers food businesses, accredits laboratories, advises the government and runs public awareness work, while day-to-day enforcement is carried out through the state commissioners of food safety and their officers.

There is a wording point in this question worth being straight about. In Indian policy the phrase food security usually refers to making enough food available and affordable, which is the business of the National Food Security Act, 2013 and the public distribution system, run by the Government's food and public distribution department. What FSSAI enforces is food safety — that what reaches the plate is fit to eat. Among the four options offered, however, FSSAI is the only Indian enforcement agency at all, since one is a foreign regulator and two are United Nations bodies, so the intended answer is unambiguous. Anchor the facts to the April 2017 exam and note that the position has not drifted since — as of 2026 FSSAI remains the food-safety regulator under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, although the standards and labelling regulations it issues have been revised many times in the years between.

• FSSAI is a statutory body under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, established under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.
• The Act consolidated several older food laws, including the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954.
• FSSAI lays down science-based standards for food and regulates its manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import.
• The authority was formed in 2008, so it was long in place by the time of this 2017 paper.
• The Codex Alimentarius, run jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization, sets international food standards but does not enforce them in any country.

• Reading food security as food safety; the entitlement side of food security is run by the food and public distribution department, not by FSSAI.
• Assuming that FDA in an Indian question means an Indian body; the national authority is FSSAI.
• Treating WHO or FAO as regulators with enforcement power inside India.

NDA asks which agency enforces a named law, while UPSC prefers statement sets on the Act, the ministry and the labelling rules — so learn the authority together with its statute and its ministry.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India functions under which one of the following Union Ministries?

  • (a)Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
  • (b)Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
  • (c)Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
  • (d)Ministry of Commerce and Industry

  Answer(b) Ministry of Health and Family Welfare — FSSAI is a statutory body under that ministry.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Food Safety and Standards Act was enacted in the year

  • (a)1954
  • (b)1986
  • (c)2006
  • (d)2013

  Answer(c) 2006 — the Act of 2006 consolidated the older food laws, including the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act of 1954, and set up FSSAI.