FSSAI (the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) has started a special drive for licencing and registration of food businesses from October 1, 2019, and directed the state food safety departments to take it up to ensure food safety compliance under their jurisdiction. The drive shall continue for three months (i.e., till December 31).
A senior official with the country’s apex food regulator said, “The drive would focus on three areas, including identifying the FBOs (food business operators) who have obtained registration certificate despite being eligible for licences; FBOs continuing food business with expired licences/without licences, and FBOs manufacturing or processing food products which are not endorsed on their licences.”
FSSAI, in this regard, has issued an order, stating that the purpose of the present special drive is to achieve enforcement in respect of non- or wrong registration or licence. However, this does not prevent the licencing authority from identifying or taking action on any other irregularity.
Meanwhile, the regulator, for FBOs’ convenience, has launched the Food Products Identity Verification System (FPIVS), wherein FBOs can check standards of the food products they manufacture online. They also can identify the proprietary and novel foods. The order stated that the intent was to ensure that only standardised/approved food items were manufactured by FBOs.
Further, it has also made arrangements for concerned organisations to check validity of their licences through the Know Your FSSAI Licence page of the website for food licencing.
The order said that the Commissioners of Food Safety of all the states were directed to initiate actions under the special drive in their respective areas and submit an action taken report for the period between October 1 and December 31 to FSSAI by January 10, 2020.
“The timely completion and submission of the report will also add to the scoring of the states under the State Food Safety Index (SFSI) 2019-20,” stated the order.
