The advisory of May 2013, issued by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) stands quashed as the Bombay High Court has called it unlawful. The advisory required that prior product approval be taken for dietary food and health supplements already licensed and existing in the market.
According to this advisory FSSAI required manufacturers to take approval for a broad spectrum of food products including “novel foods, functional foods, food supplements, irradiated foods, genetically modified foods, foods for special dietary uses or extracts or concentrates of botanicals, herbs or of animal sources”.
A petition filed by Vital Nutraceuticals Pvt. Ltd. of Ambarnath in Thane district and Indian Drug Manufacturers Association (IDMA), challenged the advisory on the ground that the FSSAI does not have power or authority to issue these advisories as it amounted to amending regulations framed under section 92 of the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006, and hence should be considered illegal and without statutory force as they did not fall either under section 92 of the Act nor were they in consonance with section 16(2) and 18(2)(d) of the Act.
Before Monday’s (30 June, 2014) order, delivered by Justice RS More that set aside the May 2013 FSSAI advisory, a two – judge bench of the Bombay High Court comprising Justice V M Kanade and Justice Girish Kulkarni had delivered a split verdict on the same. The Chief Justice had to then refer the matter to Justice RS More as to whether the FSSAI had the power to issue guidelines to existing manufacturers requiring them to take approval for products that already existed in the market.
Clause 22 of the FSS Act/Rules & Regulations states that food business operators who are the manufacturers of proprietary foods, genetically modified articles of food, functional foods, health supplements, nutraceuticals or FBOs who are the manufacturers of a non-conventional food product or a product for which the standards have not been defined and which is new and has been introduced for the first time in India, are required to apply for the product approval with the central licensing authority i.e. FSSAI. This clause does not mention anywhere already licensed such food products or those already existing in the market.
Arvind Kumar says
If the Law does not mandate approval of already marketed products, then this should be addressed immediately. The law has to be amended.
If there is a new rule, then it should apply to all the food products because any product existing will be consumed by public. The manufacturers should support the regulatory authority, for the benefit of their own safety and the public’s safety.
FSH Team says
Let’s see how the apex body takes this further