-Livemint.com Says product approval advisories by the food safety regulator are invalid The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled in favour of food companies in a case questioning the product approval advisories issued by the Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). The matter, from last year, has a far-reaching implication for Packaged Food majors, as it clears the air on product approvals pertaining to proprietary or non-standardised food items. The present ruling...

-Outlook The poor are increasingly displaying food preferences for better tasting, flavoured and Packaged Foods but with low nutritional content. Renewed media hype about counting the number of poor was sparked by the recent release of the Socio-Economic Caste Census. While many analysts found the prevalence of poverty alarmingly high, others debunked the SECC report for its muddled and incoherent view of deprivation. An important contribution of this report, however, is the...

THE controversy over Maggi instant noodles has once again highlighted the issues plaguing food safety in India. Not only does the issue raise critical questions about safe food production by multinational companies such as Nestle but it also foregrounds the institutional fault lines when it comes to ensuring food safety. Frontline spoke to Sunita Narain, who heads the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), the organisation instrumental in initiating...

-The Indian Express New Delhi: Officials said other dairy products like milk powder, processed cheese, butter and flavoured milks would also be included in the drive. After the scare over detergent being found in some Mother Dairy milk samples in Agra, state health officials said the Delhi Food Safety department will also be collecting samples of packaged and bottled milk for safety analysis. Officials said other dairy products like milk powder, processed cheese,...

-The Indian Express With the spotlight on Packaged Foods’ failure to clear safety tests, The Indian Express samples 11 states and finds out how ill-equipped and understaffed their labs are. For a processed food market estimated at Rs 7.34 lakh crore by the Annual Survey of Industries, 72 state labs and 68 private ones with National Accrediation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) accreditation are conducting tests in India’s 640...