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Food safety depts told not to renew licences issued offline; go online
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Thursday, 26 August, 2021, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Ashwani Maindola, New Delhi
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The FSSAI has issued an order asking state food safety departments not to renew licences issued offline. Since the launch of Food Safety Compliance System (FoSCoS) in November 2020, the food authority has been asking food businesses to get licences afresh through the online system of licensing and registration.
The order reads, “It has been decided that the State Licensing and Registration Authorities shall stop renewal of offline issued licences with immediate effect and shall direct FBOs to file online applications for new Licence/Registration as per eligibility criteria through FoSCoS."
The order added that Commissioners of Food Safety were requested to send confirmation regarding compliance of this order by August 31, 2021.
The FSSAI has received several complaints about many Licensing Authorities renewing offline licences and registrations which have been issued earlier through offline mode. FSSAI officials say that the challenge with offline licence renewal will be ‘maintainability of the records’.
FSSAI in a statement explains that the offline renewals of Licence or Registration will lead to many challenges like no record for such offline renewed FSSAl Licences and Registration, which can be maintained online in FoSCoS. Also, such FBOs will not be able to file Annual Returns through FoSCoS, which is mandatory from FY 2020-21.
FSSAI’s statement added that no online inspections including risk based and sampling can be done against offline issued licences.
“Similarly, modules for online improvement notices and adjudication will not work for such licensees. No online record is possible for FSSAl initiatives via FoSCoS portal like Hygiene rating, Indian Food Laboratory Network (InFoLNet), Audit Management System (AMS), Food Safety Training and Certification (FoSTaC) etc. for such FBOs,” reads the statement.
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