Need to implement laws to check food adulteration: Ram Vilas Paswan

NEW DELHI: Prevailing laws are stringent enough to work as a deterrent against those indulging in food adulteration but much needs to be done to implement them in the right spirit, government said in Lok Sabha today.

Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said, "Acts and facts are different...the law is good...it has to be implemented by the state governments."

He was responding to a series of supplementary questions on the need for a stringent law to deal with food adulteration and sale of sub-standard food products and beverages in the market.

He rued that in most of the states the required set up to deal with such cases is lacking and even details sought by his ministry on the issue some 10 days back are yet to come.

The minister said penalty for adulteration ranges from a fine of Rs one lakh to Rs ten lakh and jail for six months to life, therefore the focus should be on implementation of law.

As per information provided by state governments, the number of food samples analysed is 72,200 out of which 13,571 have been found adulterated and misbranded in 2013-14, Paswan said.