Delhi HC quashes FSSAI regulation on animal feed, BIS certification

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday (April 7, 2026) struck down a Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) regulation that prohibited the sale of animal feed containing meat or bone meal of bovine or porcine origin for milk-producing animals.

A Bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia said that the provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, are only in relation to regulating food for human consumption, which as per the scheme of the Act and its object, would not include cattle feed or animal feed.

The court explained that the 2006 Act explicitly defined “food” in the Act as any substance, processed or partially processed or unprocessed, which is intended for human consumption.

“At various places in the Act, the expressions like “food safety”, “primary food”, “unsafe food”, “sale of food” etc., occur, however such expressions, in our opinion, could not include any feed or food not meant for human consumption such as cattle feed or animal feed,” the court said.

The court’s direction came on a petition by Godrej Agrovet Limited, which is engaged in manufacturing and marketing of animal feed, cattle feed, poultry feed etc., and other agricultural inputs, challenging the Note (c) appended to the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011.

As per the Note, milk and meat-producing animals, excluding poultry, pig and fish, shall not be fed with feed containing meat or bone meal, including internal organs, blood meal and tissue of bovine or porcine origin materials, except milk and milk products. It also mandates that commercial feeds comply with BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards).

The court remarked that the Note regulates feed to be given to milk- and meat-producing animals. “In other words, it regulates the cattle or animal feed, which is clearly outside the scope of the 2006 Act in the sense that the very scheme of the Act is such that the provisions therein can be put to service only to regulate the food for human consumption and not the feed for he use of cattle or animals,” the court said.

Voluntary compliance

On the regulation that requires that commercial feed shall comply with the BIS standards, the court said, “Such prescription, in our opinion, is also beyond the scope of the Act, 2006, for the reason that the provisions contained in Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 2016, provide that compliance with the relevant BIS standards is voluntary and not mandatory whereas the impugned Regulation makes the same to be mandatory”.

The court, however, stated, “It is not that independent of the Act, 2006, and the impugned regulations, BIS standards cannot be made mandatory for commercial feeds. However, for that purpose, appropriate recourse would have to be taken by the respondents to the relevant provisions of the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 2016, and the rules framed thereunder”.