Explain the role of food control agencies in India.

Health of the citizens is the sole responsibility of the government. Therefore, the government always make sure that it makes available safe, unadulterated and hygienic food to the country. For this purpose government had established different food agencies.

● There are different food quality control agencies established by the government- ISI, AGMARK, FPO, FCI

● Food agencies established by government take care that each product which is going to sell in the market fulfills the minimum standards of quality and is not harmful. The products which fulfill the quality standards have symbols of quality upon them which helps the customer to judge the quality of the product as any product not fulfilling the minimum standards does not have those symbols.

● Functions of all food quality control agencies are as follows:

1. FCI (Food Corporation of India) takes care that the price of each food product is according to both customer and farmer’s interest, food is available throughout the whole country at reliable prices.

2. ISI (Indian Standards Institution) – It certifies all the industrial products including those which are involved in kitchen and food industries.

3. AGMARK (Agriculture marking)- It takes care that all agriculture and livestock products going to sell in the market meets minimum quality standards and it gives a symbol to them of AGMARK if they fulfil the minimum quality standards.

4. FPO (Fruit Process order) - It takes care that all the fruit products like fruit juices, jams, pickles fulfills the minimum quality standards.

5. FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) – It supervises different food products and their quality standards and thus help in protecting public health.

So, the ultimate role of all food agencies is to make available safe food to the country at reliable prices and protecting the health of the country.

Following are the symbols of food agencies in India: