Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) published a state-wise index to spur food safety improvement, 19 out of 20 large states — including Maharashtra, Bihar, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh — recorded a drop in their 2023 scores from 2019.
- Since 2019, FSSAI has released the State Food Safety Index (SFSI) each year on June 7 on the occasion of World Food Safety Day.
- Over five years, the worst drop has been recorded in the ‘Food Testing Infrastructure’ parameter, where the average score for all large states dropped to 7 points out of 17 in 2023 from 13 points out of 20 in 2019.
- States including Maharashtra, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh all recorded lower scores for this parameter. Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand, meanwhile, recorded lower scores for the ‘Compliance’ parameter.
- SFSI scores, which have been assigned annually to states since 2019, are given out of a total of 100 points that are calculated on the basis of five parameters.
- In the 2023 index, a new parameter called ‘Improvement in SFSI Rank’ was added, which assesses improvement in each state’s rank from the year before.
Five parameters
- Human Resources and Institutional Data
- Compliance
- Food Testing Infrastructure
- Training and Capacity Building
- Consumer Empowerment