Lok Sabha Question No. 6102 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2026-04-01
Subject: National Consumer Helpline (NCH)
Ministry: CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION
Asked by: Shri Hasmukhbhai Somabhai Patel

## Government of India

## Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution

## Department of Consumer Affairs

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 6102 (OIH) TO BE ANSWERED ON 01.04.2026

## NATIONAL CONSUMER HELPLINE (NCH)

6102.  SHRI HASMUKHBHAI SOMABHAI PATEL:

(OIH)

Will the Minister of CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION be pleased to state:

- (a) whether there has been a significant increase in complaints related to food adulteration, specifically concerning milk products, spices and edible oils, on the National Consumer Helpline (NCH) during the first quarter of 2026;
- (b) if so, the details thereof;
- (c) the  manner in  which the Government is collaborating with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to ensure that the 12,057 legal cases initiated against defaulting Food Business Operators (FBOs) in FY 2024-25 result in timely compensation for the affected consumers; and
- (d) the steps being taken by the Government to integrate the e-Jagriti portal with State-level food safety laboratories to enable consumers to track the testing status of suspected food samples?

## ANSWER

## CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION

## THE MINISTER OF STATE (SHRI B.L. VERMA)

(a) to (d) : FSSAI operates a dedicated consumer grievance portal on FoSCoS which is an online grievance redressal mechanism (https://foscos.fssai.gov.in/consumergrievance/). Consumers can register complaints on the portal upon which a unique code/ticket number is generated and communicated to the consumer through SMS on the registered mobile number. As per the online system, the complaint is first forwarded to the concerned Food Business Operator (FBO). If the consumer is not satisfied with the response of the FBO or in cases where the FBO fails to respond, the complaint is escalated to the respective State/ Central Food Authority for subsequent action.

During the Financial Year 2024-25, a total of 12,057 legal cases were launched under the provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 and the rules made thereunder in courts of law. This includes 11,358 civil cases (Adjudication) and 699 criminal cases (Prosecution).

In the same year, 8,636 civil cases were decided with penalty and 179 criminal cases resulted in conviction. Accordingly,  the  penalties  imposed  by  the  respective  courts  amounted  to  ₹  36,43,90,416/-  in  civil  cases  and  ₹ 28,23,001/- in criminal cases, respectively. This also includes cases launched in previous years and not exclusively from Financial Year 2024-25.

The National Consumer Helpline (NCH) administered by the Department of Consumer Affairs has emerged as a single point of access to consumers across the country for their grievance redressal at  pre-litigation stage. Consumers  can  register  their  grievances  from  all  over  the  country  in  17  languages  including  Hindi,  English, Kashmiri,  Punjabi,  Nepali,  Gujarati,  Marathi,  Kannada,  Telugu,  Tamil,  Malayalam,  Maithili,  Santhali,  Bengali, Odia, Assamese and Manipuri through a toll-free number 1915. These grievances can be registered on Integrated Grievance Redressal Mechanism (INGRAM), an omni-channel IT enabled central portal, through various channelsWhatsApp (8800001915), SMS  (8800001915), email (nch-ca@gov.in), the NCH  app, the web portal (consumerhelpline.gov.in) and the Umang app, as per their convenience.  1,398 companies, who have voluntarily partnered with NCH as part of the 'Convergence' programme directly respond to these grievances according to their redressal process and revert by providing a feedback to the complainant on the portal. Complaints against those companies who have not partnered with National Consumer Helpline are forwarded to the company for redressal.

The details of complaints related to food adulteration registered on NCH during the period January 2026 to February 2026 and January 2025 to February 2025 are as follows:

| Duration                      |   No. of complaints registered |
|-------------------------------|--------------------------------|
| January 2026 to February 2026 |                            250 |
| January 2025 to February 2025 |                            331 |

Meetings are held with the concerned Ministries, Departments and Regulators including the Ministry  of Health & Family Welfare and the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to strengthen the grievance redressal mechanism and facilitate timely resolution of consumer complaints.

The Department has launched 'e-Jagriti' portal on 1st January, 2025, which aims to enhance consumer grievance redressal through Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning integration and modern features like faceless onboarding  and  role-based  dashboards.  It  unifies  existing  applications  (OCMS,  e-Daakhil,  NCDRC  CMS, CONFONET) into a single, scalable platform, allowing users to file complaints seamlessly from anywhere with multilingual support. The portal is designed to provide a convenient, transparent and efficient means for consumers to seek redressal by enabling online complaint filing, digital submission of documents, online payment of fees and also supports virtual courtrooms, enabling the hearing of cases remotely and ensuring faster disposal while reducing dependency on physical infrastructure. These features address bottlenecks like geographical barriers, scheduling conflicts and manual interventions. e-Jagriti has reduced reliance on physical proceedings and has accelerated justice delivery.

*****