Haryana health minister calls for intensified food safety surveillance during festive season

Chandigarh, Haryana Health Minister Arti Singh Rao has directed officials to intensify the food safety surveillance campaign across the state in view of the festive season.

She instructed the Food and Drug Administration to collect 100-150 surveillance samples of food items in each district.

Rao also appealed to the public to remain vigilant while purchasing food items, buy food products only from reliable sources, and report any suspected food adulteration or food safety-related activity to the concerned authorities.

Dr Manoj Kumar, Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said on Wednesday that the Health Minister has issued directions to further strengthen the food safety surveillance campaign across the state.

The primary objective is to ensure that the public has access to safe, pure, high-quality and unadulterated food products. Special emphasis is being placed on ensuring the quality and safety of food items, particularly in view of the increased consumption of sweets, milk and dairy products during the festive season of Diwali and Chhath Puja, he said.

He stated that, under this special campaign, letters have been sent to all Deputy Commissioners in Haryana, asking them to constitute district-level special food surveillance teams under the supervision of the district administration, in coordination with the concerned Designated Officers and Food Safety Officers.

These teams will conduct inspections and collect surveillance samples from major markets, sweet shops, dairies, milk vendors and other food business establishments to identify substandard, adulterated and unsafe food products.

The district-level special surveillance teams have been assigned a target of collecting 100-150 additional food surveillance samples per district, separate from the samples routinely collected by Food Safety Officers.

The initiative aims to strengthen the independent surveillance mechanism, bring more markets within the ambit of the campaign, and ensure effective monitoring of food quality and safety across the state, he said.

He added that special attention would be given to sweets, milk, paneer, khoya, ghee and other commonly consumed food products during the campaign.

Manoj Kumar has directed the concerned officials to ensure that all surveillance samples are collected in accordance with the prescribed procedures, properly documented and sent to the designated food testing laboratories for analysis within the stipulated time frame.

The analysis reports received from the laboratories will be monitored regularly, and prompt action will be taken as per the rules in cases where food samples are found not to conform to the prescribed standards.

He further stated that, to ensure transparency and accountability in the food safety system, officials at the FDA headquarters have been directed to upload data every week on the department's state portal regarding food samples found to be substandard or unsafe, based on laboratory analysis reports.

This system will facilitate systematic monitoring of sample analysis reports, district-wise progress and regulatory and enforcement actions taken. It will also help raise public awareness about food safety.

Kumar said that Food Safety Officers in Haryana collected a total of 2,428 food samples between April 1 and September 30, 2026. These included 1,239 enforcement samples and 1,189 surveillance samples.

Following laboratory analysis, 232 enforcement samples and 149 surveillance samples were found not to conform to the prescribed food safety standards. Necessary regulatory and enforcement action has been initiated in these cases in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, and the rules and regulations framed thereunder.

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.