Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on FSSAI Compliance

Ans: Responsibility of ensuring compliance of FSS Act, 2006 rules and regulations made thereunder by the FBO’s

Ans: Enforcement is undertaken on the basis of surveillance, monitoring, inspection and random sampling of food products carried out by the Officials of Food Safety Departments

Ans: Food Safety and Standards Authority of India and State Food Authorities are jointly responsible for implementation & enforcement of FSSA, 2006. The details are provided Section 29 of FSS Act, 2006.

Ans: The enforcement is primarily undertaken by all Food Safety Commissioners of State/UT along with Designated Officers and Food Safety Officers.

Ans: The details are available on FSSAI’s Official website:http://www.fssai.gov.in/home/compliance/compliance-orders.html

Ans: The FSO shall be liable to a penalty which may extend up to one lakh rupee ifhe / she is found to be guilty of an offence mentioned under section 39 of the Act. Provided that in case the complaint made against the Food Safety Officer is false, the complainant shall be punishable with fine which shall not be less than fifty thousand rupees and may extend to one lakh rupees.

Ans: The improvement notice is the notice issued by Designated Officer if FBO fails to comply with the regulations as mentioned in Section 32 of the FSS Act, 2006.

Ans: If the food business operator fails to comply with an improvement notice, his licence may be suspended.

Ans: If the food business operator fails to comply with the improvement notice, the DO may, after giving the licensee an opportunity to show cause, cancel the licence.

Ans: Yes, any FBO aggrieved by an improvement notice may appeal to the State Commissioner of Food Safety whose decision thereon shall be final. The same can be challenged in the Food safety Appellate Tribunal/ high court of his respective States/Uts

Ans: Fifteen days from the date on which notice of the decision was served on the person desiring to appeal or the period specified in the improvement notice whichever expires earlier.

Ans:The provisions relating to offences and penalties are specified under section 48 penalties are given from Section 49-67 of the Act. A brief is given below:

Section	Offence	Persons covered	Imprisonment	Fine (Rs.)	Petty Manufacturer
50	Food not of quality demanded by purchaser; Not in compliancewith the Act	Seller	–	2 Lakhs	Penalty Rs. 25,000/-
51	Sub-standard food	Manufacturer, Seller, Storage, Distributor, Importer	–	5 Lakhs	–
52	Misbranded food	-do-	–	3 Lakhs	–
53	Misleading advertisement: False description; Or	Publisheror any person involvedin publishing	–	10 Lakhs	–
	Nature or quality or substance;
54	Food contains extraneous matter	Manufacturer, Seller, Storage, Distributor, Importer	–	1 Lakhs	–
55	Failure to comply withFSO direction	Food business operatoror importer	–	2 Lakhs	–
56	Unhygienicor unsanitary: Processing; or Manufacture	Manufacturer or processor	–	1 Lakhs	–

Ans: “Recall” means action taken by the FBO to withdraw any food from market which is not complying Section 28 of FSS Act, 2006.

Ans: Food Business Operator operating in more than two States has to get Central License for its registered Office/ Head Office and separate license/ Registration for each units depending upon the capacity/ turnover from the concerned State/ Central Licensing Authority.

Ans:

• Complaint related violation of the provisions of Act and Regulation.
• Food Adulteration.
• Food poisoning
• Food contaminations
• Misleading labeling and packaging
• Misleading Advertisements
• Licensing and registration related grievances.
• Counterfeit products
• Sub-standard quality of food products
• Unhygienic Conditions and malpractices by FBOs.
• Complaints against enforcement officers of States and Centre
• Queries/suggestions related to Ban of certain food Products (e.g. soft drinks, pan masala etc.).
• Unauthorized use of food ingredients.
• Miscellaneous like less weight of food products, offer on the particular products and the one related to other departments.

Ans: Consumers can connect to FSSAI through various channels. Consumers can register their complaints and feedbacks about food safety issues related to adulterated food, unsafe food, substandard food, labelling defects in food and misleading claims & advertisements related to various food products.

Ans: Upon the receipt of complaint/grievance, the Designated Officer may examine the complaint/grievance and if found the samples are required to be lifted or inspection of premises is required, he may forward the same to the concerned food safety officer. Food safety Officer may inspect the premises or may draw samples as per the merits of the case under intimation to designated officer.

Ans: Regarding the name of food products to be mentioned on the label, FBOs are required to

comply with the relevant provisions of Food Safety and Standards (Labeling and Display) Regulations, 2020 and any other such direction issued by the Food Authority, from time to time in this concern It is clarified that while complying with the aforesaid provisions of regulations, the name of the food product on the label may be at variance with the name mentioned in the annexure of the FSSAI license. However, the name of the food should indicate the true nature of the food contained in the package and should comply with sub regulation 5 (1) of Food Safety and Standards (Labeling and Display) Regulations, 2020

Ans: Ready-to-eat foods are pre-cleaned, pre-cooked and ready for consumption without prior preparation and Ready-to-cook food includes all of the ingredients & some preparation and cooking is required as per instruction given on the package.

Ans: Clause 2.1.14(2) Food Safety and Standards (Licensing and Registration of Food Businesses) Regulations, 2011 states that “Guarantee Every manufacturer, distributor or dealer selling an article of food to a vendor shall give either separately or in the bill, cash memo, or label a warranty in Form E” (Format of form E depicting license number of FBO is given in schedule-2 of Regulations). Further as per FSSAI order No. 15(31)2020/FoSCoS/RCD/FSSAI dated 8th June, 2021 all food businesses whether transacting with vendor or consumer are mandatorily required to declare 14- digit FSSAI License/registration number on receipts / cash memo/ bills etc. or in the format of Form E, on sale of a food products. Also, it is mentioned under para 9 of the said order that “No new transaction document is being mandated to be issued”.

Ans: Common salt without Iodization cannot be sold or offered for sale as per sub-regulation 2.3.12 of the Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restrictions on sales) Regulations, 2011. Further, since the Iodization of common salt is mandatory since 2005, the product does not require any promotion as a fortified commodity. Hence the requirement of carrying “+F” logo on label in case of Iodized Salt (fortified with Iodine only) shall not be applicable as already mentioned in sub-regulation 7(2) of the Food Safety and Standards (Fortification of Foods) Regulations, 2018.

Ans: Rule 2.4.1 (6) of FSS Rules, 2011 related to ‘Sampling and Analysis’ states that, “Where a Food Safety Officer or the purchaser takes a sample of an article of food for analysis, he shall pay, the cost of such sample, to the person from whom the sample is taken, calculated at the rate at which the article is sold to the public.” “The rate at which the article is sold to the public” means the unit selling price of the article of food at the first point of sale of the Food Business Operator (from whom such sample has been drawn) i.e. the price charged by the FBO to the buyer (wholesaler/ retailer/end customer as the case may be).

Ans: After the commencement of Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2020, if the non-erasable labelling information available on returnable glass containers and labelling information available on crown varies, the labelling information available on crown will prevail and will be considered for regulatory/enforcement purposes for the returnable glass containers.

Ans: The FSS (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011 and FSS (Fortification of Foods) Regulations, 2018 provide standards only for Edible Common Salt, Iodized Salt and Double Fortified Salt. The standards for Edible Common Salt specifies a minimum of 96% Sodium Chloride (NaCl) on dry basis which is not likely to be met by any of the other salts such as pink salt, black salt, Himalayan Rock salt, etc.. Therefore, other salts such as Black salt, Pink Salt, Himalayan Rock Salt, etc. need to be licensed as ‘Proprietary food’ with nearest category as Edible common salt (FC 12.1.1) and need not be mandatorily iodized.

Ans: The sub-regulation 5(6)(a) of Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2020 specifies that the name and complete address of the brand owner, whether or not, he himself is the manufacturer, marketer, packer or bottler, as the case may be, shall be declared on the label. Such name and address shall be preceded by the qualifying words “Manufactured by (Mfg by, Mfd by)” or “Marketed by (Mkt by)” or “Manufactured & Marketed by” or “Packed & Marketed by” as the case may be. It is clear from above mentioned sub-regulation that brand owner and marketer can be different and marked on the label as “Manufactured by (Mfg by, Mfd by)” or “Marketed by (Mkt by)” or “Manufactured & Marketed by” or “Packed & Marketed by”. However, there is no term as “Co-Marketed by” in the regulations made under FSS Act.

Ans: Under Food Safety and Standards Regulations, the following types of standardised food products are listed: Standardised food products where vitamins and minerals are to be added in specified limits for the purpose of fortification as per FSS (Fortification of Foods) Regulations, 2018. For eg- Fortified milk, Fortified rice, etc. Standardised food products where maximum limits for vitamins and minerals are specified in the standard itself, e.g. Infant Milk Food, Milk-cereal based complementary food, Packaged Drinking Water, etc. Standardised food products where addition of vitamins and minerals is allowed as per the standards, however, no limits for such addition has been specified. e.g. Biscuits, Fruit Based Beverage Mix/Powdered Fruit Based Beverage, Bread and bread like products, etc. Standardised food products where addition of vitamins and minerals is neither specified explicitly in the standard itself nor any limits have been specified. Eg- Date Paste, Harrisa (Red Hot Pepper Paste), etc. In this regard, it is clarified that the intent of the direction dated 22.10.21 (attached) was to specify limits for addition of vitamins and minerals to food products, where such addition is not explicitly stated under FSSR and thereby ensuring that the products so made, with the addition of vitamins and minerals are in compliance with the standards under FSSR. Hence, it is clarified that vitamins and minerals may be added up to one RDA to only such standardised food products listed under the Food Safety and Standards (Food Product Standards and Food Additives), wherein such addition is either not explicitly stated or limits have not been specified under FSSR, i.e. for products falling under categories 3 and 4 mentioned above.

Q27. Which regulatory provisions are applicable for the batches of the food products manufactured/packed and/or already available in market before the date of enforcement mentioned in the amendment regulations notified/operationalized by FSSAI?
Ans: The enforcement of regulatory amendment provisions shall be applicable for food products manufactured or packed (as applicable) on or after the said date of enforcement of the said amendment. The products manufactured or packed (as applicable) before the said date are required to comply with the extant regulatory provisions applicable at the time of their manufacturing or packing.