Under the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 of India, as per Section 31 (1) & 31 (2), it is obligatory for every small or big Food Business Operator (FBO) in the country to be licensed/registered under the Food Safety & Standards Authority of India.
The licensing and registration procedure and requirements are regulated by Food Safety & Standards (Licensing and Registration of Food Business) Regulations, 2011. Registration is meant for petty food manufacturers, or small or cottage scale industry, having annual turnover up to 12 lakhs whereas it is necessary for food businesses having turnover more than 12 lakhs to take a license.
Registration under FSSAI
Registration is required for any person who is a manufacturer or sell any type of food themselves, petty retailer, hawker, itinerant vendor, or stall holder. Any other food business, including cottage and small- scale industry with an annual turnover, not more than 12 lakhs. Moreover, any FBO whose food production capacity is not over 100 kg/ litre a day, or the slaughtering capacity is not above 2 large animals or 10 small animals or 50 poultry birds per day or less or the handling or procurement and collection of milk per day is not exceeding over 500 litres a day.
License under FSSAI
All the Food business operators with turnover above 12 lakhs are required to take a license under the FSS Act, 2006. Based on annual turnover, license are of two types
To streamline the registration and licensing process, FSSAI has recently launched FoSCoS. Food Safety Compliance System (FoSCoS), is an enhanced version of the Food Licensing and Registration System (FLRS) which was launched in 2012 for issuance of pan-India FSSAI Licenses and Registration. It had evolved incrementally and organically with changing regulatory needs.
The license application can be made for a period of 1 year for maximum up to 5 years based on the number of years, the fee is applicable. The renewal of a license of the license should be filed before 30 days of the expiry of the existing registration/license. Applications for registration /license filed beyond the expiry date will be subjected to a late fee of Rs. 100 for each delayed a day. The fees and the procedure for taking license (State/Central) are more extensive than filing a Registration under FSSAI. Registration for any business can be done with a Rs. 100 application fees and minimum documents (Form A). However, the application for license (State/Central) should be made under Form B duly completed and signed. The application forms should be filled according to the guidelines as prescribed by FSSAI.
Food Business operators operating in India should comply with the Food Safety and Standards Regulations and are required to conform to the Regulations by FSSAI. They are liable for penalties in case of failure to comply with the regulations.
