FSSAI Registration – An Overview

FSSAI registration is mandatory for anyone involved in the food business. Be it food processing, food manufacturing, packaging, distributing, or selling, you need to get an FSSAI registration to run your business.

The registration/licence is issued by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), an institution that monitors food businesses under the guidelines and regulations listed in the FSSAI Act 2006.

Benefits of FSSAI Registration

Apart from the fact that FSSAI registration is mandatory for your food business, getting it also comes with some benefits:

• It creates trust and credibility among your customers
• The FSSAI logo is widely recognised and hence it can ensure goodwill among consumers
• Hygiene and cleanliness are regulated and followed when FSSAI registration is involved
• You can create better work policies or improve them through studies that you get access to
• New knowledge about the industry is shared with you which will help you to improve your safety standards and aid you in reaching the standards of international organisations
• An FSSAI licence is important for importing and exporting food products
• FSSAI is mandatory when you sell food products online
• FSSAI is also responsible for setting guidelines and procedures for quality assurance of the accredited labs as per ISO17025.

Who Is Required to Register with the FSSAI?

From hawkers, home vendors to giant food chains everyone operating in the food industry needs to register with FSSAI. Irrespective of whether you are operating online or offline, or whether you are a local player or into the import or export of food products, you need to register with FSSAI. Based on their size and the places they operate, they have to get one of the 3 types of registration/licence that are discussed below.

If your business falls in any one of the below-listed categories, then a food licence is mandatory for you:

• Procurement
• Manufacture
• Distribution
• Processing
• Packaging
• Storage
• Selling

In other words, an individual or a company that operates with food substances from farm to plate must obtain the FSSAI food licence.

Penalty for Not Registering

A food business operator (FBO) who runs their business without registering under FSSAI may face imprisonment and an FSSAI licence penalty of up to ₹5 lakhs for the same.

Types of FSSAI in India

According to the FSSAI Act, 2006 all food businesses are required to be registered/licenced under the following 3 categories:

FSSAI Registration – Basic

It is the primary kind of registration issued for businesses that are small in turnover – up to ₹12 lakhs approximately per annum Catering businesses irrespective of their turnover have to apply for a state licence and not a basic FSSAI registration.

FSSAI State Licence

Companies that have a profit greater than ₹12 lakhs require a state licence.

FSSAI Central Licence

The central registration is for bigger businesses that have a turnover of over ₹20 crores per annum. Companies that supply food to government offices/departments and businesses involved in food import/export, an online platform, operating franchises, or chains of hotels/restaurants have to get a central licence as well.

Documents Required for FSSAI 

Based on different types of registration and the food business that you are running, you have to submit different documents for registration.

FSSAI Registration

• Authorized person’s passport-sizes photograph [self-attested]
• Authorized person’s Aadhar card front and back [self-attested]
• Address proof of the business premises [rental agreement/previous month’s electricity bill/NOC from landlord]
• Declaration signed by the authorized person

State & Central Licence

• Passport-sized photograph of the directors/partners/proprietor
• Identity proof of directors/partners/proprietor [Aadhar and PAN]
• Address proof of the business premises [rental agreement/previous month’s electricity bill/NOC from landlord]
• Photograph of the premises [8-9 photos]
• Blueprint of the premises
• List of food products on the company letterhead [with seal and signature]
• List of machines (if any) on the company’s letterhead [with seal and signature].

Manufacturing Units 

Including the above-mentioned documents, manufacturing units have to submit the following documents as well:

• The blueprint of warehouse, plant, etc.
• A list of all machinery
• Report of a water test
• List of all food categories