The Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is working on mapping the food classification under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, with that of the HS Code to ensure uniform enforcement activity for the domestic and imported food products.
Rita Teaotia, chairperson of the country’s apex food regulator, said that the mapping would ensure uniform testing protocols for the imported as well as domestic products, thereby creating harmony between the enforcement activity for the two sectors and strengthening of the food safety ecosystem in a holistic manner.
“We are ensuring that nothing slips under our hand without proper checking. So what we are doing is mapping our own classification of the products to the custom codes, which are called the HS Codes. So once there is the common codification, the process of testing and sampling become absolutely standardised for both imported and domestic products,” she said.
Teaotia was speaking to the press here on the occasion of inauguration of the North India Regional Office of the FSSAI in Ghaziabad.
She added, “Under our FSS Act, we have certain classification of the food products, which is part of the existing regulations. Globally, the trade is governed by classification of the products under what is called HS Code, product by product, which is a universal nomenclature and classified by the International Customs Union.”
“So, we are mapping our product classification to HS Codes for the domestic market. It was always there for the imports. This will help in making testing methodology and protocols uniform for both imported and domestic products,” Teaotia said.
She added,” Also, as part of our commitment as WTO (World Trade Organization) members, we need to have an identical regime for domestic products as we have for imported ones.”
