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FSSAI special drive to ensure festival season food safety
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Wednesday, 07 October, 2026, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Ashwani Maindola’, New Delhi
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The Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has written to all the commissioners of food safety and regional directors to conduct special drives to ensure food safety, quality and prevention of adulteration during the upcoming festival season.
FSSAI observed that as Navratri and Diwali approach, demand for sweets, savouries, beverages, edible oil, and milk products such as ghee, khoa, and paneer rises sharply across the country, making stronger oversight essential for food safety.
The national drive heavily targets high-demand items known to be vulnerable to adulteration during peak shopping periods, including milk and milk products like khoa, paneer, and ghee, as well as sweets, snacks, savouries, namkeen, papad, fryums, edible oils, and beverages.
Also, recognising regional variations in dietary habits, the regulator highlighted that local enforcement can adapt surveillance based on regional eating patterns. For example, authorities in northern and western India will place particular scrutiny on fasting staples such as kuttu atta and singhada atta.
Terming the directive as ‘most important’, the FSSAI communication to the states added, “To address this concern and to safeguard public health, it is hereby requested that enforcement officials (Designated Officers/Food Safety Officers/Central Food Safety Officers) under your jurisdiction may be directed to conduct inspections and sampling in their respective area during the festive period. These drives may be focused particularly on identified hot spots and sensitive locations under your jurisdiction.”
The food regulator has also urged the states to ensure that Food Safety on Wheels, wherever available, may be strategically deployed in prominent market places and based on specific intelligence inputs, to facilitate on-the-spot testing, strengthen vigilance, create awareness and to boost consumer trust by assuring them of safe and quality food products during the festive season.
Further, to ensure administrative transparency, the FSSAI has made real-time digital recording mandatory and asked the states that all data collected during inspections, sample collections, and subsequent testing outcomes must be updated immediately on the digital FoSCoS and FoSCoRIS portals.
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