HYDERABAD: The Forum for Good Governance (FGG) has urged Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy to streamline the procedure for follow-up action in food adulteration cases and ensure that offenders do not escape prosecution or penalties.
In a letter to the chief minister, FGG president M Padmanabha Reddy said food safety officials collect suspected adulterated food samples from vendors and send them to the Food Testing Laboratory at Nacharam for analysis. The laboratory classifies non-conforming samples as unsafe, substandard or misbranded and forwards the reports to the Commissioner of Food Safety.
According to the Forum, cases must be registered and prosecution initiated in instances involving unsafe food samples, while penalties may be imposed and cases compounded in matters concerning substandard and misbranded products.
The FGG examined laboratory data from the past three years and found that 1,310 samples had been classified as unsafe.
In 2023-24, of the 6,067 samples analysed, 802 were found unsafe and 119 substandard. In 2024-25, about 3,372 samples were analysed, of which 251 were classified as unsafe and 70 as substandard. In 2025-26, around 3,691 samples were analysed, with 257 found unsafe and 127 substandard. The Forum suggested that cases involving penalties should not be closed until the full amount was collected, credited to the government account and properly accounted for.
Padmanabha Reddy said such a mechanism would improve accountability among enforcement agencies and strengthen food safety measures aimed at protecting public health. He urged the chief minister to examine the issue and take appropriate action.