The Karnataka High Court on Thursday stayed for three months the implementation of the regulations and some of the provisions of the Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Act, 2006, which were enforced from August last year.
Justice Mohan Shantanagoundar passed the interim order after hearing the petition filed by the Karnataka Pradesh Hotels and Restaurants’ Association.
The FSS (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations, 2011; FSS (Food Product Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011; certain provisions in the FSS (Licensing and Registration of Food Business) Regulations 2011, and Sections 50 to 65 of the Act (dealing with penal provisions for various offences) have been stayed following the interim order.
The new law replaced the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954.
While licence is mandatory for all food business operators having annual turnover of over Rs. 12 lakh, the rest have to get registered with the Commissioner for Food Safety and Standards. The State government has set August 4 as deadline for this process.
Claiming that the new law would seriously affect the Indian traditional culinary, the association pointed out that it had been drafted keeping in mind the “four bread and dozen dressing” food style of the west.
‘Impracticable’
“The law is authored by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry in collaboration with large multinational companies,” the petitioner claimed while pointing out that the new law would seriously impact medium, small and micro hotel units besides petty eateries due to “impracticable” regulations. The petition also said that hoteliers could not be forced to subject to tests raw materials such as vegetables and foodgrains for traces of pesticides as most of the hoteliers buy raw materials directly from growers.
