During the test, samples of 24.58 percent of the food items sold in marketplaces around the country were found to be below the standard. Furthermore, around 3.8 percent of food items sold publicly in the market have been found to be unhealthy. This major disclosure comes ahead of the commencement of the festive season, from the FSSAI annual report for 2019-20.
In 2019-20, a total penalty of Rs. 59.35 crores were recovered from guilty people, according to this data. Civil proceedings were launched in 27,412 cases and criminal cases were initiated in 4,681 cases out of the total 1, 18, 775 samples gathered from marketplaces across the nation.
In these civil and criminal cases, the court’s decision has come in a total of 17,702 cases. In this way, the total number of samples taken by FSSAI in a year on the allegation of adulteration, only in 14.90 percent of the cases, the court was successful in proving the charge.
It is worth mentioning that the FSSAI examined a total of 1, 06, 459 food samples in 2018-19. A total of 3.7 percent (3,900 samples) were deemed hazardous. Thus, there has been a 16.05 percent increase in contaminated food items in marketplaces across the country on an annual basis.
3.6 percent in Maharashtra and 5.2 percent in Delhi are unsafe
According to the FSSAI’s yearly report, a total of 15,717 samples from Madhya Pradesh’s marketplaces were examined. 0.8 percent (132 samples) of the 6,455 food samples from Rajasthan were tested, whereas 6.3 percent (409 samples), 2.9 percent (166 samples) of the 5,665 food samples from Bihar and 3.6 percent (216 samples) of the 5962 samples from Maharashtra were tested.
In Delhi, 5.2 percent (109 samples) of the 2,114 samples were judged to be food-safe. Similarly, the FSSAI evaluated a total of 13160 samples from Gujarat. Only 0.4 percent of the samples (59 samples) were found to be hazardous. Similarly, Punjab had 1.13 percent (80 samples), Haryana had 3.1 percent (76 samples), Chandigarh had 0.3 percent (just one sample), and Chhattisgarh had 2.7 percent (42 samples).