Lok Sabha Question No. 4193 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2026-03-18
Subject: Grievance Redressal and Enforcement of Quality Standards
Ministry: CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION
Asked by: Shri Khagen Murmu, Shri Praveen Patel, Shri P P Chaudhary, Smt. Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah, Shri Shankar Lalwani

## Government of India

## Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Department of Consumer Affairs

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4193

TO BE ANSWERED ON 18.03.2026

## GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL AND ENFORCEMENT OF QUALITY STANDARDS

## 4193.  SHRI PRAVEEN PATEL:

SHRI P P CHAUDHARY: SHRI SHANKAR LALWANI: SMT. MALA RAJYA LAXMI SHAH: SHRI KHAGEN MURMU:

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

- (a) whether there has been a significant surge in complaints related to food adulteration specifically for milk products, spices and edible oils on the National Consumer Helpline (NCH) in the first quarter of 2026;
- (b) if so, the details thereof;
- (c) the manner in which the Ministry collaborating with the Ministry of Health to ensure that the 12,057 legal cases launched against defaulting food business operators in Financial Year 2024- 25 result in timely compensation for affected consumers;
- (d) the details of the steps are being taken by the Government to integrate the e-Jagriti portal with Statelevel food safety labs to allow consumers to track the testing status of samples they have flagged as suspect; and
- (e) the  manner in which the 'Jago Grahak Jago' campaign being repurposed in 2026 to educate rural consumers on using the 305 'Food Safety on Wheels' mobile labs to check for common adulterants like detergent and starch?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION (SHRI B.L.VERMA)

(a) to (e) : 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  prelitigation 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 channels- WhatsApp (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 |

The Department regularly monitors grievance data received on the helpline and holds meetings 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 ensure timely resolution of consumer complaints.

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  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,  eDaakhil,  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.  eJagriti has reduced reliance on physical proceedings and has accelerated justice delivery.

The Department has been conducting country-wide multimedia awareness campaigns under the aegis of 'Jago Grahak Jago' under the Consumer Awareness Scheme. Consumers are made aware of unfair trade practices, hallmarking, grievance redressal mechanisms and various other consumer related issues through all  media  including  electronic,  digital,  outdoor  &  social  media  and  through  participation  in  fairs  and festivals. Under the scheme, grants-in-aid are also provided by the Department to States/UTs for carrying out activities on consumer awareness with local content at the regional level. The Department has also been conducting  virtual  interactions  with  panchayats  of  all  States/UTs  to  generate  awareness  at  the  grassroots level.

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