Food laws and Regulations

To meet a country’s sanitary and phytosanitary requirements, food must comply with the
local laws and regulations to gain market access. These laws ensure the safety and suitability
of food for consumers, in some countries; also govern food quality and composition
standards.
The requirement of food regulation may be based on several factors such as whether a
country adopts international norms developed by the Codex Alimentarius Commission of the
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization;
good agricultural and manufacturing practices; or a country may also has its own suite of
food regulations. Each country regulates food differently and has its own food regulatory
framework. Usually more than one agency is involved in food regulations e.g. health and
agriculture, they may have centralized or regionally controlled food regulations, and different
agencies may be involved in enforcement activities.

Types of food safety and quality standards that apply in most countries:
Food Safety and Standards Act
The Indian Parliament has recently passed the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006that
overrides all other food related laws. It will specifically repeal eight laws:
• The Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954
• The Fruit Products Order, 1955
• The Meat Food Products Order, 1973
• The Vegetable Oil Products (Control) Order, 1947
• The Edible Oils Packaging (Regulation) Order, 1998
• The Solvent Extracted Oil, De oiled Meal, and Edible Flour (Control) Order, 1967
• The Milk and Milk Products Order, 1992
• Essential Commodities Act, 1955 relating to food
The Act establishes a new national regulatory body, the Food Safety and Standards
Authority of India, to develop science based standards for food and to regulate and monitor
the manufacture, processing, storage, distribution, sale and import of food so as to ensure the
availability of safe and wholesome food for human consumption. All food imports will
therefore be subject to the provisions of the Act and any rules and regulations made under the
Act.
As a temporary measure, the standards, safety requirements and other provisions of the
repealed Acts and Orders and any rules and regulations made under them will continue to be
in force until new rules and regulations are put in place under the Food Safety and Standards
Act, 2006. For that reason, importers will for some time have to continue to take into account
the provisions of those repealed Acts and Orders.

Prevention of Food Adulteration Act

A basic statute (Prevention of Food Adulteration Act (PFA) of 1954 and the PFA Rules of