FSSAI's Nationwide Food Safety Drive: 3,280 Tonnes Seized, 52 Licences Cancelled
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the country's food regulator, ran a nationwide enforcement drive between 1 September and 5 November 2026.
Food safety officials inspected 56,431 food establishments (shops, dairies, sweet makers, eateries and factories) during this period.
They seized about 3,280 tonnes of food items that did not meet safety rules. These included paneer, ghee, milk and sweets, the items most often adulterated (mixed with cheaper or harmful substances) in the festival season.
The regulator cancelled 52 licences of food businesses that broke the rules.
The drive covered the festival months, when demand for dairy products and sweets rises sharply and so does the temptation to cheat.
FSSAI and the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is the national body that makes sure the food sold in India is safe to eat. It sets the scientific standards that food must meet, decides who may run a food business, and guides the officers who check food in shops and factories. It was created by a law of Parliament, the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 (FSS Act), so it is a statutory body. It works under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and its headquarters is in New Delhi.
The drive from September to November 2026 shows the FSS Act's enforcement chain at work. State Food Safety Officers inspected 56,431 businesses and seized unsafe food, and licensing authorities used their power under the Act to cancel 52 licences. The cases will now move through lab testing, adjudication or prosecution as the Act lays down.
Food Adulteration: Common Adulterants, Health Risks and Detection
Food adulteration means making food worse on purpose or by carelessness, while still selling it as pure. It can mean adding something cheap (water in milk, starch in paneer), adding something harmful (a textile dye in turmeric), or taking out something valuable (removing cream from milk). The substance added is called an adulterant. Adulteration cheats the buyer of money, and in many cases it also harms health.
The items seized in the 2026 drive, paneer, ghee, milk and sweets, are exactly the foods most often adulterated in the festival season. The seizures and cancelled licences show how the adulteration risks described above are tackled through inspections, sampling and licence action under the food safety law.
- Drive period: 1 September to 5 November 2026
- Food establishments inspected: 56,431
- Food items seized: about 3,280 tonnes, including paneer, ghee, milk and sweets
- Licences cancelled: 52
- FSSAI: statutory body under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006; set up 5 September 2008; Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
- Food Authority: Chairperson + 22 members, one-third women
- Licence/registration turnover limits revised from 1 April 2026: ₹1.5 crore and ₹50 crore
- World Food Safety Day: 7 June