Silent Contract on Food Safety Between Citizen and State

Most families believe that food on their tables is safe to consume, that belief binds a sacred trust to the State forming a silent contract. The general public cannot test for pesticide residue, calcium carbide, or adulterants in foods. 

They rely on State’s regulation. When trust collapses, harm is intimate: a child sick after consuming fruit, a daily wage worker hospitalized losing their daily wage, an indigenous farmer undercut by chemical ripened fruits coming outside the State. It is categorically asserted that food adulteration is a crime against public health from time immemorial. Those who run such anti social operations disguised as fair trade should not escape with mild punishment.

Evidence That Demands Explanation, Not Comfort

During 2025-26, the State Public Health Laboratory tested 5,166 food samples across Assam. Of these, 177 were declared unsafe and 531 substandard. Officials may present the 3.4 per cent unsafe rate as evidence that contamination remains marginal, but that reading is misleading on many counts. Surveillance reflects only what enforcement could reach, not the entire market. A net that covers a fraction of the market cannot be cited as proof that the remaining ocean is clean.

The real story lies beneath those numbers. The 177 unsafe samples may be prosecutable under Section 59 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. The 531 substandard samples may attract Section 50 which is a separate, lesser category, but one that signals chronic, systemic non-compliance across supply chains. The seized items are not imported luxuries. They are packaged drinking water, spice powders, edible oils, dairy products. The Tea Board’s RTI disclosures strip away illusions of our everyday morning beverage as more than half of packet tea samples failed mandatory pesticide tests, the Government of Assam must play a crucial role in pesticide testing control with tea estate and Tea Board. They are the staples that reach every kitchen, in every income bracket, every day.

Adulteration’s Open Corridor

Why does contaminated food keep reaching consumers despite raids, seizures, and an established legal framework? The answer is structural, not accidental.

Parliamentary data presented to the Rajya Sabha on 13 March 2026 shows only 2,997 Food Safety Officers deployed nationwide against 4,208 sanctioned posts — a vacancy rate of 29 per cent. Assam alone has 16 vacant district posts. Each vacancy in a busy commercial district is an unchecked corridor for adulterated goods to move from supplier to consumer without any check and balances.

Compared with national benchmark on food safety, Assam’s weaknesses are evident. Kerala has 14 mobile food testing labs, one in each district, allowing roadside checks and same day results without waiting for central laboratories. Tamil Nadu recorded a conviction rate of 73% in 2023–24, far higher than the national average of about 48%, supported by strong labs, trained prosecutors, and faster adjudication. 

Assam, in contrast, has mainly relied on periodic enforcement drives. Unless it increases inspection capacity, laboratory facilities, and manpower, enforcement will remain reactive instead of preventive. Raids produce seizures and press releases, but rarely make out evidence strong enough to secure convictions. 

The Constitutional Dimension

Food safety is not a mere regulatory housekeeping but a constitutional imperative: Article 21’s guarantee of life with dignity includes protection from hazardous food, and Article 47 imposes on the State a positive duty to raise nutritional standards and protect public health. Where laboratories are non functional, posts remain vacant, and penalties go unrecovered, the State abdicates its constitutional responsibility. The Supreme Court has repeatedly held in many authoritative judgments that contaminated food directly threatens the right to life and has mandated effective surveillance and enforcement to prevent that violation.

Deterrence That Does Not Deter

The Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 provides a comprehensive framework, but weak enforcement and low, fixed fines make penalties a mere cost of doing business for large companies; to restore deterrence the regime needs turnover linked fines and disgorgement, stronger forensic and enforcement capacity, and effective penalty recovery and administrative sanctions for repeat offenders.

When hazardous substances such as calcium carbide or malachite green are deliberately introduced into the food chain, the conduct attracts criminal liability under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023(BNS); the primary penal anchors for deliberate adulteration and sale of noxious food are Sections 274 and 275 BNS, which are cognisable offences requiring police investigation. Where contamination causes serious injury or death, additional BNS provisions addressing death or grievous harm arising from negligent or culpable conduct should be invoked as factually appropriate, and prosecutions should proceed in parallel under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 and other sectoral statutes.

From Raids to Governance

The remedial agenda is practical and affordable: immediately fill vacant Food Safety Officer posts in commercial districts; equip and accredit State Public Health Laboratories for comprehensive testing; adopt risk based inspections focused on fresh produce, dairy, spices and packaged water; require public disclosure of repeat offenders; and mandate time bound adjudication so food safety cases do not languish in procedural delay.

Food safety reform also requires closer coordination between the Union and the States. Under the FSSAI framework, States are required to submit annual State Food Safety Plans for central approval and funding. Delays in financial disbursement and slow approvals of State Plans directly weaken local enforcement capacity. The National Food Safety Index, which ranks States on parameters including compliance, laboratory infrastructure and training, should be used as a binding accountability instrument rather than a ceremonial exercise. In that prospect, Assam ranks among the “Needs a Push” category in the latest State Food Safety Index (SFSI) released by FSSAI, meaning its overall score is below 60% and it lags behind leading and average performing states in food safety testing and enforcement.

A Question of Public Trust

Food safety laws are meant to stop unsafe food before it reaches consumers, requiring coordination from farms to food processing industries.

Food safety and agriculture policy must work together. Supporting local growers with finance and markets will reduce imports. The Government could launch an Indigenous Fruits Mission, promoting star fruit, pomelo, jamun, and bael through procurement in midday meals, hospitals, hostels, and old age homes. Each district may adopt one indigenous fruit. The measure of reform is not the number of raids conducted but whether parents can once again place daily staples before their children without any fear.