Key Differences between PFA, 1954 and FSSA, 2006.

 

Key Differences between PFA, 1954 and FSSA, 2006.

 

Friends, as we know the Food Safety and Standard Act, 2006 is a pivotal act to maintain and regulate food safety throughout the country. The act is mandatory and actually replaces the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954.

With the emergence of the FSSA, 2006 there is a single reference point of control related to all matters of food. Due to certain drawbacks the PFA, 1954 repealed to FSSA, 2006. As, we know the Food Safety and Standard Act, 2006 is a combination of eight (08) different act or orders in which the PFA is a major contributing one.

1.   Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA), 1954

2.   Fruit Product Order (FPO), 1955

3.   Meat and Food Product Order (MFPO), 1973

4.   Milk and Milk Product Order (MMPO), 1992

5.   Vegetable Oil Products (Control) Order, 1947

6.   Edible Oils Packaging (Regulation) Order, 1998

7.   Solvent Extracted Oil, De-oiled Meal, and Edible Flour (Control) Order, 1967

8.   Any other order under Essential Commodities Act, 1955 relating to food.

Main Features of the Food Safety and Standard Act, 2006:

Following are some of the key main features of FSSA, 2006.

1.   Movement from multilevel and multi-departmental control to an integrated line of command.

2.   Single reference point for all matters related to food safety and standards.

3.   To provide self-monitoring Food Safety Management Systems.

4.   Promote general awareness about food safety and standards.

5.   Provision of offences depending upon offences and accordingly.

6.   Framing of regulations, standards and guidelines related to articles of food.

7.   Responsibility of food business operator (FBO) to ensure food safety.

Key Distinguishing Differences between PFA, 1954 and FSSA, 2006:

With concern to the key understanding here, I am trying to represent both important Acts with certain set of parameters to make the distinguishing features of the Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA), 1954 and The Food Safety and Standard Act (FSSA), 2006. To regulate the Food Safety Act, the Food Safety Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) came in to effect.

These are described to know the key difference among both the Act. It is an important aspect for FSSAI mains and numerous examinations of Central FSO (Food Safety Officer), TO (Technical Officer) and Assistant Commissioners.  Here, is the list of key differences for the same concern.

No.	Parameter	PFA, 1954	FSSA, 2006
1.	Name	Prevention of Food Adulteration, 1954 (37 of 1954)	The Food Safety Standard Act, 2006 (34 of 2006)
2.	Goal	To find out Adulteration	Food Safety
3.	Focus	Inspection and Control	Monitoring Surveillance and Close observation
4.	Authority	Multiple Authorities	Single Authority
5.	Workforce	Insufficient Enforcement Personnel	Full-Time Officer like FSO (Food Safety Officer)
6.	Responsibility	Food Inspector is responsible for Examination & Execution.	Responsibility of food safety is on FBO (Food Business Operator)
7.	Improvement Notice	No provision for Improvement Notice	Provision for Improvement Notice
8.	Penalty Provision	Direct Prosecution by Court	Through the Adjudication process (section 68 of FSSA, 2006) provision of penalty for offences made.
9.	Court Appeal	No Appeal before moving to court.	Food Safety Tribunal Provision (Section 70 of FSSA, 2006).
10.	GMP or GHP Provision	GMP or GHP are non- mandatory in nature.	GMP or GHP is mandatory according to Schedule 4 of FSSA.
11.	Import	Improper control on Import	Proper Import control and structure
12.	Sampling	Under Section number 4 of PFA, 1954 food inspector collects Three (03) samples	Under section number 38 of FSSA, 2006 FSO (Food Safety Officer) collects Four (04) samples.
13.	Personnel in Sampling	Food Inspector collects the sample from any manufactures and sent it to Public analyst for analysis and subsequent proceedings.	Food Safety Officer (FSO) collects the sample from any FBO and sent it to Food analyst for analysis and subsequent proceedings.
14.	Food Recall Procedure	No separate provisions for food recall procedure.	Separate provision made for Food recall procedure. (Article of food which is marketed and initiate the process to recall it due to not fit for consumption).
15.	Administrative Control	PFA dealt with many government Ministries and handling different food orders like FPO, MMPO is sometimes inconsistent.	Administrative control of FSSA assigned to MoH&FW (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare) and establish a single reference point for all matters.
16.	Current Status	Not Effective in the current scenario.	Effective in the current scenario. Different eight act or orders are repealed by FSSA, 2006. (As specified above in the blog.)

 

Reference Video:  To understand the concept in a better manner uses the YouTube video link provided below.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDul7uf7pcbM_kWCEaA9WvA