The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) will serve notices on food business operators (FBOs) who fail to comply with the mandatory license and registration process of the food regulator.
The decision was taken at a recent steering committee meeting convened by Coimbatore District Collector R. Rajamani with officials from various departments and stakeholders to streamline the process.
K. Tamilselvan, Designated Food Safety Officer, Coimbatore, told The Hindu on Wednesday that the move to serve notices on defaulters was to ensure 100 % compliance to certificate and registration process of FSSAI. As of now the compliance has touched 89 % in the district.
“FSSAI will convene special camps with the cooperation of associations of FBOs like the bakery owners’ association in the coming days. We will urge the associations to ensure compliance to certificate and registration process for member FBOs. Those who continue to operate business without licence and registration will be served notice under Section 63 of the Food Safety and Standards Act to take legal action,” he said.
Section 63 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, deals with punishment for carrying out a business without licence (If any person or food business operator (except the persons exempted from licensing under sub-section (2) of section 31 of this Act), himself or by any person on his behalf who is required to obtain licence, manufactures, sells, stores or distributes or imports any article of food without licence, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months and also with a fine which may extend to ₹5 lakh).
Coimbatore has an estimated number of 31,153 FBOs of which 27,719 have obtained licence or registered themselves with FSSAI. Of the 27,719 FBOs, 7,945 have obtained licences and 19,774 completed registration.
FBOs with an annual turnover of ₹12 lakh or above must obtain licence from FSSAI while those with an annual turnover below ₹ 12 lakh are mandated to get a registration certificate from the regulatory body.
According to Dr. Tamilselvan, the licence and registration processes have become easy after the introduction of online facility for the same.
