The Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954

The Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954 aims at making provisions for the prevention of adulteration of food. The Act extends to the whole of India and came into force on 1st June 1955.

WHAT IS ADULTERATED FOOD?
An article of food shall be deemed to be adulterated -

1. if the article sold by a vendor is not of the nature, substance or quality demanded by the purchaser or which it purports to be;
2. if the article contains any substance affecting its quality or of it is so processed as to injuriously affect its nature, substance or quality;
3. if any inferior or cheaper substance has been substituted wholly or partly for the article, or any constituent of the article has been wholly or partly abstracted from it, so as to affecting its quality or of it is so processed as to injuriously affect its nature, substance or quality;
4. if the article had been prepared, packed or kept under insanitary conditions whereby it has become contaminated or injurious to health;
5. if the article consists wholly or in part of any filthy, putrid, disgusting, rotten, decomposed or diseased animal or vegetable substance or being insect-infested, or is otherwise unfit for human consumption;
6. if the article is obtained from a diseased animal;
7. if the article contains any poisonous or other ingredient which is injurious to health;
8. if the container of the article is composed of any poisonous or deleterious substance which renders its contents injurious to health;
9. if the article contains any prohibited colouring matter or preservative, or any permitted colouring matter or preservative in excess of the prescribed limits;
10. if the quality or purity of the article falls below the prescribed standard, or its constituents are present in proportions other standard, or its constituents are present in proportions other than those prescribed, whether or not rendering it injurious to health.

Thus, additions of water to milk amount to adulteration, within the meaning of sub-clauses (b) or (c).

WHEN ARE FOODS MISBRANDED
An article of food shall be deemed to be misbranded-

1. if it is an imitation of, or is a substitute for, or resembles in a manner likely to deceive, another article of food, and is not conspicuously labelled so as to indicate its true character,
2. if it is falsely stated to be the product of any place or country,
3. if it is sold by a name which belongs to another article of food,
4. if it is so coloured, flavoured, coated, powdered or polished as to conceal any damage to the article or to appear of greater value than it really is,
5. if false claims are made for it upon the label or otherwise,
6. if, when sold in sealed or prepared packages by its manufacturer, the contents of each package are not conspicuously and correctly stated on the outside thereof;
7. if the package containing it is deceptive with respect to its contents, in any manner, such as label, statement, design or device which is misleading,
8. if the package containing it, or the label thereon, bears the name of a fictitious individual or company as the manufacturer or producer of the article,
9. if it purports to be, or is represented as being for special dietary uses, unless its label bears the prescribed information concerning its dietary properties,
10. if it contains any artificial flavouring, colouring or chemical preservatives without declaring the same on the label, or in violation of the requirements of this Act and the Rules made thereunder, and
11. if it is not labelled in accordance with the requirements of this Act and the Rules made thereunder.

Preservative: means a substance which when added to food, is capable of inhibiting, retarding or arresting the process of fermentation, acidification or other decomposition of food.