Author : Aparna Roy

Expert Speak Terra Nova
Published on Jun 05, 2025

Climate change is reshaping food safety risks in India, demanding urgent integration of climate data into regulatory frameworks.

Towards a Climate-Informed Food Safety Framework for India

Image Source: Getty

April marked the onset of an unusually early summer in several Indian states, bringing with it not just extreme temperatures but a surge in food poisoning cases and gastrointestinal infections. As temperatures continue to rise and rainfall patterns become erratic, foodborne illnesses—once viewed largely as the result of poor hygiene or storage—are increasingly driven by climate variables. Just as extreme heat is no longer a sporadic meteorological event but a recurring public health emergency, climate-induced food safety risks are also emerging as a silent and underestimated crisis. Climate change is intensifying the vulnerability of India’s food systems, both in production and in the safety of what reaches the consumer’s plate. Despite this growing threat, India’s climate adaptation and food safety strategies remain disconnected, limiting our ability to respond to a risk that is rapidly multiplying in scope and scale.

Much like the insufficient tracking of heat-related morbidity and mortality, foodborne illnesses are often underreported, poorly diagnosed, and aggregated under general gastrointestinal disease categories.

India has long grappled with the public health burden of foodborne diseases. Higher ambient temperatures significantly accelerate the growth of pathogens such as Escherichia coli, Salmonella, and Listeria in food, especially perishable items including dairy, seafood, and poultry. Extreme weather events such as flooding and waterlogging compound this risk by contaminating irrigation water and disrupting sanitation infrastructure. High humidity and temperature variability create ideal conditions for toxin-producing microbes to thrive in coastal states. These effects are not theoretical; following the 2018 Kerala floods, hospitals reported a sharp rise in foodborne outbreaks linked to contaminated water and raw food consumption. During periods of extreme heat, such as the 2024 heatwave in Delhi, the risk of fish-related histamine poisoning increases due to challenges in maintaining climate-resilient cold chain storage in city markets.

Despite these clear patterns, India’s institutional response remains poorly coordinated. Climate adaptation plans have made commendable progress in addressing direct health threats such as heatstroke or vector-borne diseases at the national and state levels. Nonetheless, food safety remains curiously absent from climate-health discourse. Conversely, food regulatory mechanisms led by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) have remained largely climate-agnostic. Inspection protocols, lab testing regimes, and public advisories are not currently informed by climate variability or predictive meteorological data. This has resulted in a fragmented policy architecture where early warning systems do not trigger/instigate food safety responses, and public health advisories fail to account for evolving food-related risks in extreme weather conditions.

Furthermore, the absence of integrated surveillance presents another critical weakness. Much like the insufficient tracking of heat-related morbidity and mortality, foodborne illnesses are often underreported, poorly diagnosed, and aggregated under general gastrointestinal disease categories. Hospital systems rarely capture seasonal or climate-linked spikes, and local governments lack the data granularity to pre-empt food safety crises. This is particularly significant for informal food economies, which support an estimated 2.5 billion people globally, including—roadside vendors, street kitchens, and open markets. These sectors are key in providing daily nutrition to many lower-income Indians. However, they are disproportionately vulnerable to climate extremes and remain outside the ambit of robust regulatory oversight. Without targeted surveillance, outbreaks risk becoming synonymous with reactive episodes rather than preventable risks.

Technologies that track deviations in refrigeration conditions, particularly in transport and storage, could also be scaled to cover India’s vast supply chains of milk, seafood, and poultry.

Just as Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled dashboards and health informatics have been recommended to bridge institutional gaps in India’s heatwave response, similar interventions could transform the country’s approach to climate-sensitive food safety. Integrating India Meteorological Department forecasts with FSSAI inspection schedules, developing mobile-based tools for food vendors to monitor spoilage risks, and deploying emerging technologies such as blockchain for tracing cold chain storage constitute immediate adaptation imperatives. Technologies that track deviations in refrigeration conditions, particularly in transport and storage, could also be scaled to cover India’s vast supply chains of milk, seafood, and poultry. Agritech innovations that offer solar-powered cold storage and digital hygiene audits could provide a much-needed cushion for small-scale vendors facing rising temperatures and inconsistent electricity supply.

However, technology alone will not solve what is, at its core, a systemic governance issue. The institutional silos between climate, health, and food safety must be dismantled. National and state-level climate action plans must incorporate food safety within their vulnerability assessments and resilience strategies. FSSAI’s Eat Right India campaign—focusing on healthy diets and hygiene—must be expanded to include modules on climate-related food handling practices. For example, during prolonged heat waves or in the aftermath of flood events, public communication strategies should extend beyond hydration advice to encompass detailed guidance on safe food storage, appropriate consumption timelines, and avoiding high-risk raw foods.

During prolonged heat waves or in the aftermath of flood events, public communication strategies should extend beyond hydration advice to encompass detailed guidance on safe food storage, appropriate consumption timelines, and avoiding high-risk raw foods.

Grassroots interventions will be instrumental in this shift. Analogous to how ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) workers and Anganwadi staff have been vital in educating communities on heat risks and acting as first responders, these networks can promote food hygiene and monitor climate-sensitive illnesses. India’s street food vendors are estimated at around 10 million, and small grocery sellers, often operating outside formal licensing mechanisms, can be engaged through municipal partnerships to develop localised food safety protocols during climate extremes. Community-based monitoring, as evidenced in various countries, can act as a sentinel for early detection of foodborne illness clusters, provided it is backed by the right training and technology.

Moreover, the urgency of aligning food safety with climate resilience stems from the disproportionate burden borne by the most vulnerable. Low-income households, which rely on open markets for daily food purchases, amounting to around 2 billion people globally, cannot afford spoilage-related losses or hospital visits due to food poisoning. Children, the elderly, and those with weakened immune systems are at the highest risk of complications from foodborne illnesses. Just as heat-related deaths are often undercounted and underreported, foodborne diseases associated with climate extremes go unnoticed in the daily churn of hospital admissions and primary health data.

India must urgently reimagine food safety as a dynamic health outcome intrinsically shaped by climate variability. This necessitates new institutional linkages, updated regulatory protocols, localised data systems, and strengthening public education. Climate change is not merely a challenge to agricultural productivity or food availability, but also to food safety. Recognising this nexus and responding accordingly will be crucial if India aims to protect the health of its population in an era of rising climate risks. Climate change is rewriting the rules of public health, and food safety must no longer be left out of the equation.


Aparna Roy is a Fellow and Lead, Climate Change and Energy, at the Centre for New Economic Diplomacy at the Observer Research Foundation.

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Author

Aparna Roy

Aparna Roy

Aparna Roy is a Fellow and Lead Climate Change and Energy at the Centre for New Economic Diplomacy (CNED). Aparna's primary research focus is on ...

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