India’s food safety surveillance reached a record scale in FY26, but the proportion of food samples failing regulatory standards remained largely unchanged, highlighting persistent compliance challenges despite a significant expansion in testing capacity.
Data released around World Food Safety Day by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) showed that about 17% of food samples tested during the fiscal year ended March 2026 failed to meet prescribed safety standards. The figure is broadly consistent with failure rates reported over recent years, even as the number of samples analysed has increased substantially.
According to the data, food testing volumes have risen sharply over the past few years. Between FY20 and FY24, the number of food samples analysed by FSSAI and state food safety authorities increased from around 1.07 lakh to more than 4.5 lakh, driven by expanded laboratory capacity and the deployment of additional mobile food testing units.
The relatively unchanged failure rate despite a sharp increase in inspections suggests that broader testing alone may not be sufficient to improve overall compliance across the food industry.
Enforcement data presents a mixed picture. Civil cases initiated against food business operators have increased steadily over the same period, rising from around 24,000 annually to more than 38,000. Criminal prosecutions, however, have remained relatively stable, while licence cancellations continue to account for a small proportion of regulatory actions compared with the number of violations detected.
Industry experts say the data indicates that India has significantly strengthened its ability to identify food safety violations but that enforcement outcomes may not yet be creating a strong enough deterrent to change industry behaviour.
“The consistency in the failure rate suggests that non-compliance remains systemic rather than incidental,” said Ashwin Bhadri, founder and CEO of Equinox Labs. “Testing capacity has improved considerably, but unless regulatory action consistently translates into meaningful consequences, businesses may not perceive enough risk to alter their compliance practices.”
According to Bhadri, the persistence of a roughly one-in-six failure rate points to a stable level of underlying non-compliance rather than isolated violations. While increased surveillance has enabled regulators to detect more unsafe products, sustained improvements in food safety will depend on stronger enforcement, greater accountability and better compliance practices across the supply chain.
The findings also come at a time when FSSAI is intensifying its focus on food safety and labelling reforms, including proposed front-of-pack nutrition labelling regulations and tighter disclosure requirements across packaged food categories.
As India’s food industry continues to expand, regulators face the challenge of ensuring that increased testing is matched by enforcement measures capable of improving long-term compliance. Without stronger deterrence, experts caution that higher inspection volumes alone may continue to identify a similar proportion of non-compliant products year after year.