National Webinar on “The Indian Legal framework for Food Safety''

On 12th June 2021, the Centre for Criminal Justice Research (CCJR), Saveetha School of Law, organised a national Webinar on  “The Indian Legal framework for Food Safety''. Mrs. Reshma Soman N, Assistant Professor Kerala Law Academy Law College, Thiruvananthapuram was  the distinguished speaker for the session. The speaker commenced the session by interacting with the students and shared the relevance of food safety and the need for regulating it in a country like India.  Mrs.Reshma Soman set the tone of the event by promptly introducing various food safety issues in India and how food plays a primary need in our lives. The speaker explained the major legal and policy milestones in India for food safety, starting with the history of the Food Act and various Pre-Constitutional and Post-Constitutional Laws to safeguards food safety and health of the  consumers. She explained how the policies and laws in the pre- FSSAI Scenario were chaotic as there were 9 different laws and 8 different Ministries governing food sectors. So the FSSAI aimed to consolidate all the previous existing laws for all matters relating to food safety and standard and constituted an independent statutory body of food authority was created in 2011. Further the session comprehensively addressed the chronology and the scope of FSSAI and Food Safety and Standard Rules of 2011, 2017 & 2018. The speaker concluded the session by explaining the offences and punishment relating to Food Safety and Security under sec 59 of FSSAI and under Sec 272 & Sec 273 of IPC. The session was thoroughly interactive and students actively participated in the concluding Q&A round which discussed the importance of Food Safety as a Fundamental Rights under Article 14,19 & 21 with reference to the Pepsico Case and in Nestle Case.