There has been a constant rise in the number of food samples found adulterated during the last few years, with a total of 17.66 per cent of these detected in the last financial year, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.
Minister of Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad said in a written reply that as many as 5,180 out of 29,328 food samples tested during 2012-13 were found to be adulterated or misbranded.
This accounted for 17.66 per cent of the total food samples collected and tested, against the figure of 12.77 per cent in 2012-12 and 12.65 per cent in 2010-11.
As per information provided by Azad, 8,247 samples were found adulterated/misbranded out of 64,593 samples collected in 2011-12 and 14,806 found adulterated out of 1,17,061 samples collected in 2010-11.
In 2008-09, the total food samples found adulterated or misbranded were 8,304 out of 94,470 samples examined and accounted for 8.79 per cent of the total.
Azad said during 2012-13, there have been 3,755 cases registered/prosecutions launched and 1,100 convictions were secured in this regard during the year.
Against this, there were 6,845 prosecutions/cases registered and 764 convictions in 2011-12; and 6,506 prosecutions/cases registered and 1,034 convictions in 2008-09.
