Testing of Food Items

 New Delhi, January 5, 2018: For the purposes of food safety, production and testing of food products is regulated under Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 and Rules and Regulations made thereunder.  Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) had undertaken a baseline survey of 72 State/Public Food Laboratories in 2013-14. During the survey, it was found that 62 state food testing laboratories were functional and that there was shortage of testing facilities in the majority of state food testing labs across the country. Further, the gap study indicated that in the state food testing laboratories, there is an urgent need to upgrade these laboratories both in terms of testing infrastructure, availability of trained scientific and technical manpower for food testing and putting in place a more reliable laboratory management and operating procedure.  Accordingly, FSSAI has rolled out a Central Sector Scheme for ‘Strengthening of Food Testing System in the Country including Provision of Mobile Food Testing Labs’ (SOFTeL) with a total outlay of Rs. 481.95 Crore to be implemented during 2016-17 to 2018-19. The Scheme comprises , inter alia, of the following components: