AGMARK, BIS, FSSAI

32) Consider the following statements:

1. The Standard Mark of Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is mandatory for automotive tyres and tubes.
2. AGMARK is a quality Certification Mark issued by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2



Solution: (a) 1 only

The Bureau of Indian Standards is the national Standards Body of India working under the aegis of Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Government of India. Wikipedia

Statement 2:  AGMARK is a certification mark employed on agricultural products in India, assuring that they conform to a set of standards approved by the Directorate of Marketing and Inspection, an agency of the Government of India.


The difference between them is that AGMARK is a certification mark which is given to the agricultural products in order to conform to the Agriculture Products Act,1986  whereas, FSSAI (Food Standard and Safety Authority of India) is an agency or a division of the Ministry of Health & Family welfare.

AGMARK is thus employed on the agricultural products for assurance of the quality of the product which is the supervising agency. The Directorate of the Marketing & Inspection, Government of India acts as a Certifying Agency in order to Certify the product conformity.



FSSAI helps to regulate and it also supervises the functioning of the food businesses in India, and in order to monitor and to promote public health. It is thus mandatory for all the food business operators, distributors, retailers and the storage houses to get an FSSAI license.

AGMARK was  established under the Agriculture Produce (Grading and marking) Act of India, 1937 ( amended in 1986), while FSSAI was established under the Food Safety and Standard Act, 2006.