The Delhi High Court on Tuesday set aside a directive issued by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) that prohibited the use of meat or bone meal in feed for milk and meat-producing animals. The court ruled that the FSSAI’s jurisdiction is limited to food intended for human consumption and does not extend to the regulation of cattle or animal feed.
The judgment was delivered by a bench comprising Chief Justice D. K. Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia in response to a petition filed by Godrej Agrovet Ltd. The petitioner had challenged the FSSAI regulation which mandated that animals used for milk and meat production—excluding poultry, pigs, and fish—should not be given feed containing internal organs, blood meal, or tissues of bovine or porcine origin.
The core of the legal dispute centered on whether the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, empowered the FSSAI to regulate what animals eat. The court observed that the provisions of the Act are specifically designed for the regulation of “food for human consumption.”
The bench stated that any attempt by the food authority to regulate cattle or animal feed “travelled beyond the scope of its power.” The court noted that because animal feed does not fall under the definition of food for humans as per the 2006 Act, the FSSAI lacked the statutory mandate to issue such restrictions.
In addition to the feed restrictions, the court also addressed FSSAI’s orders from 2019, 2020, and 2021, which directed that commercial feeds for food-producing animals must comply with Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) standards.
The High Court found these directives to be legally untenable. The bench remarked that requiring commercial feed to comply with BIS standards was “beyond the scope of the law,” primarily because such compliance is voluntary unless specifically mandated by the Central Government. The court pointed out that the authorities failed to produce any order from the Central Government that made BIS standards mandatory for commercial animal feeds.
Quashing the contested regulations and subsequent directives, the court held that the FSSAI had acted ultra vires (beyond its legal power) to the Act of 2006.
“In our opinion is that the impugned Regulation as also the directions dated 10.12.2019, 27.01.2020 and 01.01.2021 are illegal and thus not tenable being ultra vires to the Act, 2006,” the bench concluded.
With this ruling, the court has officially quashed Note (c) appended to Regulation 2.5.2 of the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulation, 2011, along with the associated directives.
