Food Law

GENERAL LAWS REGARDING FOOD

Objectives:

1.      To understand about GENERAL LAW regarding FOODS

2.      Meaning and definition of FOOD

3.      Food ADULTERATION

FOOD SAFETY AND STANDARDS ACT 2006

THE FOOD SAFETY AND STANDARDS ACT, 2006

[23rd August, 2006.]

An Act to consolidate the laws relating to food and to establish the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India for laying down science based standards for articles of food and to regulate their manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import, to ensure availability of safe and wholesome food for human consumption and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

PRELIMINARY

Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 is extended to the whole of India.

Definitions -

(a) "Adulterant" means any material which is or could be employed for making the food unsafe or sub-standard or mis-branded or containing extraneous matter;

(b) "advertisement" means any audio or visual publicity, representation or pronouncement made by means of any light, sound, smoke, gas, print, electronic media, internet or website and includes through any notice, circular, label, wrapper, invoice or other documents;

(c) "Chairperson" means the Chairperson of the Food Authority;

(d) "Claim" means any representation which states, suggests or implies that a food has particular qualities relating to its origin, nutritional properties, nature, processing, and composition or otherwise;

(e) "Commissioner of Food Safety" means the Commissioner of Food Safety appointed under section 30;

 (f) " Consumer" means persons and families purchasing and receiving food in order to meet their personal needs;

(g) "contaminant" means any substance, whether or not added to food, but which is present in such food as a result of the production (including operations carried out in crop husbandry, animal husbandry or veterinary medicine), manufacture, processing, preparation, treatment, packing, packaging, transport or holding of such food or as a result of environmental contamination and does not include insect fragments, rodent hairs and other extraneous matter.

As per Section 5 of the FSS Act,  The Food Authority shall consist of a Chairperson and the following twenty-two members out of which one-third shall be women, namely:-

(a) seven Members, not below the rank of a Joint Secretary to the Government of India, to be appointed by the Central Government, to respectively represent the Ministries or Departments of the Central Government dealing with -

• Agriculture,
• Commerce,
• Consumer Affairs,
• Food Processing,
• Health,
• Legislative Affairs,
• Small Scale Industries,

who shall be Members ex officio;

(b) two representatives from food industry of which one shall be from small scale industries;

(c) two representatives from consumer organisations;

(d) three eminent food technologists or scientists;

(e) five members to be appointed by rotation every three years, one each in seriatim from the Zones as specified in the First Schedule to represent the States and the Union territories;

(f) two persons to represent farmers’ organisations;

(g) one person to represent retailers’ organisations.

Reference for further study https://www.fssai.gov.in/

Indian  Patent Act.

        Patent Right varies from country to country. In India the law which govern patent right is "Indian Patent Act 1970". Indian Patent Act, 1970 grants exclusive right to the inventor for his invention for limited period of time. Generally 20 years time has been granted to the patent holder but in case of inventions relating to manufacturing of food or drugs or medicine it is for seven years from the date of patent. There is certain legal procedure which needs to be followed in order to register. There are several attorney helping inventor in patent registration by providing them best well informed knowledge. In India patent registration can be filed individually or jointly. In case of deceased inventor this can be done his legal representative on behalf of him. All the required documents need to be filed along with the application form. Only after verification registration certificate is provided to the applicant.

Indian patent law

        Indian patent law tells the important aspects of Indian Patent Act, 1970. India patent Act, 1970 differentiates patentable and non-patentable inventions. It means distinction is made between invention and process of invention. Person should have been true inventor of the product in order to be eligible under Indian law. Person whom patent right has been granted is known as patentee. Patentee has monopoly right over creation, right to surrender, right to give patent to some other person. This right is given by a state in order to safeguard and protect his invention. Under Patent Act, right to prevent others from making any use, selling or distributing the invented patent without any permission from patentee. In case there is an infringement of the patentee's law then a suit may be filed for infringement. 

Indian Trademark Act.

Trademark Act

      Trademark Act has made many things convenient for proprietor and the consumer of the goods. Trademark is protected under law. Trademark Act provides exclusive and monopoly right to the owner of the product. Trademark could be in the form of symbol, sign, word, mark or may be any combination. When any product or item comes into market then it contain some identification mark so that people could easily differentiate between two brands therefore we can say that every product has some trademark which is its identification mark to distinguish it from other products. Trade Mark is protected under law. Trademark is registered under The Trade Mark Act, 1999. This The Trademark Act, 1999 provides an exclusive right to the person to sell his goods under particular Trademark.

Indian Trademark Act

      Trademark Act, 1999 have some distinguished features then Trade and Merchandisers Marks Act, 1958. According to Trademark Act, 1999 duration of registration has been extended to 10 years which was initially 7 years. Now registration procedure is much simpler and it includes registration of service marks and collective marks also. Prior to 1940 there was no such law of trademark, it started in 1940 only. Once the Trade and Merchandise Act, 1958 has been repealed since then The Trade Mark Act, 1999 is governed.

Trademark Attorney

      Trademark attorney is helping business and inventors worldwide. Trademark Attorney could be a person, who can act in trademark matters, or a firm who can provide legal and expertise advice on trademark. In many countries trademark attorneys are separate legal professionals, working as lawyers. They monitor the procedure and also provide advice, guidance in trademark filing and registration, handle oppositions and carry out search. Trademark is not only a valuable asset of the company but also goodwill of company. It needed to be protected under law which means it needs expert's advice, which should be accurate and appropriate. Trademark attorney's main aim is to provide best satisfactory service to clients and associates. Trademark Attorney firm consist team of highly qualified professionals. The legal service which they offer is really very useful for the clients. It helps in making and taking necessary decisions in respect of trademark. It is advisable to take help from trademark attorney's in order to avoid any complications and undesirable legal issues as these trademark attorney's are specialised in providing qualitative legal services to their clients and developing and obtaining trademarks in India. 

Cases

– Insect Infestation : A sample of suji analysed after about 6 days. It is possible that insects may develop after the sample was taken, since public analyst did not mention about living insects in the same.

The term insects infested means a swarm of insects or at least a large number of insects. (Municipal Corpn. Delhi VS. Shri Ramji Das) Delhi High Court, FAC 1988 (II) 20.

– Milk sample contained one dead fly, which would not make the milk to be infested (State of Punjab VS. Mahinder Singh) Punjab and Haryana High Court, FAC 1985 (II) 44.

– Mere presence eggs of in an article of food and with no living insect visible to the naked eye cannot be held that the article of food is insect infested (Municipal Corporation Delhi VS. Badrinath) Delhi High Court