Food Safety Rules Updated to Add Officers for Fortified Rice Control

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India issued a notification dated January 8, 2026, exercising powers under Section 10(5) read with Section 37 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, to further amend its principal notification of July 2, 2025 relating to Fortified Rice Kernel. Through this amendment, the Authority notified an additional 103 officers as Food Safety Officers (FSOs) specifically for Fortified Rice Kernel, by inserting new entries from serial numbers 267 to 369 in the existing list. The notification takes effect from the date of its publication in the Official Gazette. This expansion strengthens the regulatory and enforcement framework for fortified rice by significantly increasing the number of designated officers responsible for oversight, inspection, and compliance. The move reflects an administrative step to enhance monitoring capacity and implementation efficiency of food safety standards concerning fortified rice across jurisdictions.

FOOD SAFETY AND STANDARDS AUTHORITY OF INDIA
NOTIFICATION
New Delhi, the 8th January, 2026

F. No. RCD-15001/21/2025-Regulatory-FSSAI.—In exercise of the powers conferred under Sub-Section 5 of Section 10 read with Section 37 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 (34 of 2006), the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India hereby notifies the following officers as Food Safety Officers for the Fortified Rice Kernel with effect from the date of publication in this notification by amending the principal notification, published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part III, Section 4 dated the 2^nd July, 2025:-

In the table, after Sr. no. 266, the following entries shall be inserted, namely,-

RAJIT PUNHANI, Chief Executive Officer
[ADVT.-III/4/Exty./601/2025-26]

Note: The principal notification was published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part III, Section 4 vide F. No. IEC-34011/1/2021-IEC-FSSAI-Part(8), dated the 2nd July, 2025 and subsequently last amended vide notification numbers F. No. IEC-34011/1/2021-IEC-FSSAI-Part(8) dated 6th November, 2025.