Consumer Protection: Role of Food Forensics in Ensuring Food Safety

Abstract

Abstract

Nutritional food is very important for human survival. Today every person spends a lot of money purchasing food products, but due to the lack of quality in these food items our health is badly affected. The right to know about commodities before purchasing is a legal right of consumers, but due to misinformation about altered food items public health is affected. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring food safety and protecting the public health of consumers. The inadequate quality of food products sold in the market leads to serious illness and deaths of many people.

Food forensics is a scientific branch that uses various analytical techniques to ensure the safety of food products. It plays a crucial role in determining food fraud and adulteration, helping to ensure food safety and consumer protection. Different analytical techniques of food forensics can be used to analyse food contamination. Thus, strategies using food forensic methods are very useful in the protection of public health.

The research mainly aims to analyse the main food laws of India and their implementation to see how food safety is ensured in our country. Further, the judicial approach has been analysed through precedents to identify the challenges faced in protecting the right to quality food for consumers. This research results in exploring ways such as controlling corruption, employing food forensic techniques, effective implementation of food laws and many other ways so that food safety and consumer protection can be ensured.

References

1. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World.


2. United Nations, Sustainable Development Goal 2: Zero Hunger Report.


3. FAO Global Hunger Report.


4. World Health Organization, Foodborne Disease Burden Epidemiology Reference Group Report.


5. The Lancet, Global Burden of Disease Study on Dietary Risks.


6. UNICEF, State of the World’s Children Report.