Key National Quality Control Laws and Institutions in India’s Dairy Sector

India produces more milk than any other country in the world – over 239 million tonnes in 2023-24 alone. But sheer volume means little if what reaches the consumer is adulterated, mislabeled, or unsafe. Behind every litre of pasteurized milk and every packet of paneer on your kitchen shelf is a framework of national laws and institutions working to ensure that India’s dairy products are safe, standardized, and trustworthy. Understanding these laws is not just an academic exercise – it is essential knowledge for anyone working in or studying the dairy and food processing sectors.

Why quality control laws matter in the dairy sector 🔗

Milk is highly perishable. Its procurement, processing, transportation, and distribution require strict hygiene at every step. Without regulatory oversight, adulteration – diluting milk with water, adding harmful chemicals, or misrepresenting fat and solid content – becomes widespread. India’s legislative response to these risks has evolved over decades, moving from a patchwork of state-level rules to a unified, science-based national framework.

The Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954 🔗

The Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA) Act, 1954 was India’s first comprehensive central legislation to combat food adulteration. Before 1954, each state had its own adulteration laws – passed at different times, with inconsistent standards, penalties, and enforcement mechanisms. This created serious barriers to interstate food trade. The need for a uniform central law was recognized as far back as 1937, and after India became a republic, food adulteration was placed on the Concurrent List of the Constitution, enabling Parliament to legislate on the subject.

The PFA Act received Presidential assent on 29th September 1954 and came into force on 1st June 1955. It was amended three times – in 1964, 1976, and 1986 – to strengthen penalties, plug loopholes, and empower consumers and voluntary organizations. Its three core objectives were to ensure the availability of pure and wholesome food, prevent fraud and deception in food trade, and protect consumers from harmful substances.

Key provisions relevant to dairy 🔗

Under the Act, no person could manufacture, sell, store, or distribute adulterated or misbranded food. Food inspectors – appointed by the central or state government – were empowered to enter premises, collect samples, seize adulterated products, and initiate legal proceedings. Each collected sample had to be divided into three parts: one for the public analyst, one for the vendor, and one sealed as a reference in legal proceedings. For dairy products specifically, this meant milk, butter, ghee, and other products had to conform to prescribed standards of composition and purity. The penalty structure ranged from imprisonment for general adulteration to a minimum of three years – extendable to life imprisonment – where the adulteration was likely to cause death or grievous harm.

The Act also established Central Food Laboratories to provide a final opinion in disputed cases, and a Central Committee for Food Standards (CCFS) under the Directorate General of Health Services to advise the government on standards. The PFA Act shaped India’s food safety landscape for over five decades, before being formally superseded by the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.

The Essential Commodities Act, 1955 and the Milk and Milk Products Order, 1992 🔗

The Essential Commodities Act (ECA), 1955 was enacted to ensure the easy availability of essential goods to consumers and to prevent hoarding and black marketing. It empowers the central government to regulate the production, supply, and distribution of commodities deemed essential to public welfare. For the dairy sector, the most significant order issued under this Act is the Milk and Milk Products Order (MMPO), 1992.

The MMPO was promulgated on 9th June 1992 under Section 3 of the ECA, following the de-licensing of the dairy sector in 1991. According to the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, any person or dairy plant handling more than 10,000 litres per day of milk or 500 metric tonnes of milk solids per year must be registered with the Registering Authority appointed by the Central Government. The primary objective of the Order is to maintain and increase the supply of liquid milk of desired quality, while also regulating the production, processing, and distribution of all milk and milk products.

What the MMPO covers 🔗

The MMPO sets standards for fat and solids-not-fat (SNF) content in milk, mandates strict hygiene conditions in dairy establishments, and specifies requirements for packaging, labeling, and marketing. It also provides for a levy mechanism – where, in a supply shortage, dairy plants can be directed to make a portion of their skimmed milk powder or milk fat available to public authorities for reconstitution into liquid milk. Penalties for non-compliance fall under Section 7 of the Essential Commodities Act. Under the FSS Act, 2006, the MMPO was subsequently deemed to be regulations issued by the Food Authority, ensuring continuity within the new regulatory framework.

The Standards of Weights and Measures Act, 1976 🔗

Accurate measurement is a non-negotiable part of food quality assurance. The Standards of Weights and Measures (SWM) Act, 1976 and its companion SWM (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 1977 govern how packaged food products – including all dairy items – must be labeled and sold. These rules require that every pre-packaged dairy product clearly declares its net weight or volume, the name and address of the manufacturer, the batch or code number, the best-before date, and the maximum retail price (MRP). This prevents short-weighing and ensures consumers receive accurate information before purchase. For dairy products sold in bulk or loose form, these rules establish accountability at the point of sale, protecting consumers from mismeasurement. The Ministry of Law, Justice and Company Affairs governs these Acts and Rules.

The Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 – the overarching framework 🔗

The most transformative piece of legislation governing India’s dairy sector today is the Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA), 2006. Enacted on 23rd August 2006 and implemented through regulations notified in August 2011, the Act was designed to consolidate the multiple food laws that existed previously – including the PFA Act 1954, the Fruit Products Order 1955, the Meat Food Products Order 1973, the Vegetable Oil Products (Control) Order 1947, and the MMPO 1992 – into a single, unified regulatory framework.

The Act established the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) as an independent statutory body under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, with its head office in New Delhi. FSSAI and State Food Safety Authorities are jointly responsible for enforcing the Act’s provisions. The FSS Act aims to establish a single point of reference for all food safety matters – replacing the earlier multi-level, multi-departmental control structure with a single line of command.

How FSSAI regulates dairy specifically 🔗

Under the Food Safety and Standards Regulations, 2011, FSSAI has laid down detailed product standards for all dairy items – from milk and cream to khoa, paneer, flavoured milk, and butter. These standards specify essential composition requirements (such as minimum fat content), permissible additives, microbiological limits, contaminant thresholds, labeling requirements, and approved heat treatment methods. Every food business operator (FBO) – from a small dairy cooperative to a large processing plant – must comply with these standards and obtain either registration or licensing, depending on the scale and risk profile of their operations. The Act also mandates science-based risk assessment as the foundation for standard-setting, aligning India’s framework with international norms.

Licensing, penalties, and enforcement 🔗

The FSS Act makes licensing and registration mandatory for all dairy FBOs. It imposes strict penalties for violations including fines and imprisonment for offences like adulteration, misbranding, and the manufacture of unsafe food. FSSAI also oversees Central Food Laboratories, sets accreditation procedures for testing labs, and operates import clearance protocols at major ports to ensure that imported dairy products – such as whey protein or specialty cheese – comply with Indian food safety standards before entering the market.

Associated institutions: BIS and APEDA 🔗

Quality control in the dairy sector is not limited to government legislation alone. Two key institutions – the Bureau of Indian Standards and APEDA – play a critical supporting role.

Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) 🔗

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), established under the BIS Act, 1986 (formerly the Indian Standards Institution, operating since 1947), is India’s national standards body operating under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution. Its core functions include formulating Indian Standards, operating product certification schemes, recognizing testing laboratories, and promoting standardization and quality control in industry.

For the dairy sector, BIS has formulated and revised standards for key products including pasteurized milk (IS:13688), pasteurized butter (IS:13690), butter oil (IS:13689), and skimmed milk powder (IS:134). While BIS certification is largely voluntary, it became compulsory for certain dairy products – notably milk powder and condensed milk – from 1987, requiring manufacturers to obtain the ISI Mark before sale. In addition, BIS jointly developed a Conformity Assessment Scheme for Milk and Milk Products with the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). This scheme provides a single-point certification covering product standards (per relevant Indian Standards), process requirements (per NDDB quality mark guidelines), and Food Safety Management System requirements (per IS/ISO 22000). Manufacturers that obtain BIS certification are licensed to display the Standard Mark on their products, signaling conformity to quality benchmarks.

APEDA and dairy exports 🔗

The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) plays a vital role in connecting India’s dairy sector to global markets. India is currently the world’s largest milk producer, and while domestic consumption dominates, dairy exports – primarily to the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the USA, and Egypt – are a growing opportunity. APEDA works with dairy exporters to implement internationally recognized quality systems, assists businesses in obtaining certifications such as HACCP and ISO standards (often prerequisites for accessing developed markets), maintains a database of approved exporters, and conducts regular inspections to ensure continued compliance with export standards. Among dairy products, ghee, butter, and butter-spread are covered under AGMARK standards – a quality certification that assures consumers of the product’s purity and composition, and facilitates international trade credibility.

From fragmented rules to a unified system 🔗

India’s dairy quality control framework represents a significant legislative journey. What began as fragmented state-level food laws evolved into the landmark PFA Act of 1954, which was then supplemented by commodity-specific orders under the Essential Commodities Act, weight and measurement rules, and voluntary standards from BIS. The Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 ultimately brought all these threads together under one authority – FSSAI – creating a more coherent, science-based, and internationally aligned system. Institutions like BIS and APEDA extend this regulatory network into the realms of product standardization and export certification, ensuring that quality assurance in the dairy sector operates at every level – from the farm and processing plant to the retail shelf and international trade.

What do you think? With the FSS Act, 2006 having consolidated most earlier dairy laws under FSSAI, do you think India’s current regulatory framework is adequately equipped to handle the challenges of adulteration at the grassroots level? And given that BIS certification for products like milk powder is now mandatory, should this requirement be extended to more dairy product categories to strengthen consumer protection?

References

1. https://apeda.gov.in/DairyProducts
2. https://www.indiacode.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/12896/1/the_prevention_of_food_adulteration_act,_1954_no._37_of_1954_date_29.09.1954.pdf
3. https://fsq.institute/food-laws-standards/essential-control-orders-commodities-act-1955/
4. https://dahd.nic.in/related-links/milk-and-milk-product-order-1992
5. https://fssai.gov.in/cms/food-safety-and-standards-act-2006.php
6. https://www.fssai.gov.in/upload/uploadfiles/files/Chapter%202_1%20(Dairy%20products%20and%20analogues).pdf
7. https://www.khuranaandkhurana.com/2025/04/08/an-overview-of-bureau-of-indian-standards-bis-certification
8. https://alephindia.in/bis-certification-for-milk-and-milk-products.php