Food Adulteration, Safety and Protection: A Right-Based Analytical Study Seeking Solution with Reference to the State of Assam

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-533-1_46How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Right to Food; Food Adulteration; Food Adulterants; Health & Safety

Abstract

The healthy body is the result of intake of fresh and healthy food by a human being. In fact, the secret of a good life is to have the right food at the right time. Owing to the importance of food, the modern society treats the adulteration of food as a heinous and unpardonable socio-economic offence. Adulterating food is regarded as a social evil and is a reflection of the level of crime in society. Several methods are used for food adulteration, using techniques, which range from simple to extremely complex procedures. Food adulteration takes place due to dishonesty, though it may also be due to ignorance. Both educations of traders and consumers as well as legal measures have to be simultaneously undertaken to curb adulteration. Consumer movements in this direction have to be actively encouraged. Food activates human life to proceed with its activities or components. In fact, “the Adulteration of food stuffs and other food” is an item under the Concurrent List in the Constitution of India. In order to prevent this adulteration of food, the Indian Government has enacted a Consumer Legislation called “The Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954”. Food Adulteration Act, 1954, is a Central Act to make provision for the prevention of adulteration of food because there exists an acute need to curtail this anti-social and economic evil which was widespread and rampant in the society. It is to prevent, curb and check adulteration of food and food stuffs, and to suitably punish the wrongdoers. It came into effect from 1st June, 1955 and extends to the whole of India. Adulteration of food is often present in its most crude form as prohibited substances are either added partially or wholly. Food safety is one of most important subject to be considered for study and deal with at present very seriously as per Food safety and standard Act 2006 and necessary adjudication and prosecution is to be carried out as per law to deter the offenders from committing such acts. Assam is endowed with diverse Agro-climatic conditions which permit growing of wide range of horticultural crops. It accommodates various fruits, vegetables, flowers, spices, medicinal and aromatic plants, nut crops, tuber crops and also plantation crops. But most of products are being adulterated before and after they reach the markets and are purchased by the consumers for direct and ultimate consumption which affects their health and safety. This practice of adulterating food and eatables stands at present as a great threat to public health and safety, which demands preventive measures to be undertaken to fight with its ugly heads. Therefore, this article aims to present a scenario of food adulteration with dreaded consequences and seek measures to remedy it besides putting the legal machinery into operation as it is today.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Download article (PDF)

TY  - CONF
AU  - Dilip Kumar Borah
AU  - Hiren Ch. Nath
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/31
TI  - Food Adulteration, Safety and Protection: A Right-Based Analytical Study Seeking Solution with Reference to the State of Assam
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Smart Systems and Social Management (ICSSSM-2 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 766
EP  - 806
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-533-1_46
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-533-1_46
ID  - Borah2025
ER  -