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Jurisdiction over Central licence holders shall be of Central FSOs, clarifies FSSAI
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Thursday, 08 June, 2023, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Ashwani Maindola, New Delhi
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The FSSAI has issued a direction clarifying the enforcement actions on food businesses particularly with respect to jurisdiction between State and Central Food Safety Officers and laid down that the jurisdiction over Central licence holders shall be of Central Food Safety Officers.
According to the FSSAI’s direction on the basis of the feedback received from the State Food Authorities, there was a need for a consolidated and clarified instructions to avoid any confusion/ambiguity with respect to the enforcement of the provisions of FSS Act, 2006.
“To ensure an effective enforcement without any jurisdictional issues between the State & the Central Food Safety Officers and keeping in view the objectives of the Act as well as overall administrative efficiency, the directions are being laid down in the matter,” reads the statement issued by the FSSAI.
The direction says that all the regular inspections including for the complaints/any other references (including complaints received directly from the State Food Authorities against the Centrally licensed Food Business Operators (FBOs) shall be carried out by the Central Food Safety Officers.
However, in case of food safety emergency, the Centrally licensed food business can be inspected by the State Food Safety Officer with the approval of Regional Director and Designated Officers and the State Commissioner of Food Safety shall be informed about the same.
Further, FSSAI lays down that in such cases, the inspection report shall be submitted to the concerned Central Licensing Authority (CLA) by the State Designated Officer and further action on the same shall be taken by the concerned CLA.
The direction also lays down that in case the State is carrying out any special drive which may include Centrally Licensed FBOs, the State Designated Officer may get the premises of such FBOs inspected through the State FSOs, with the prior permission from the concerned Commissioner of Food Safety of the State/UT and under prior intimation to the concerned Regional Director of FSSAI.
And in such cases where samples were taken in special drive, the consequent proceedings after lab reports was received, shall be carried out by the Central Licensing Authority and the State FSO/Designated Officer (DO) shall provide all the relevant information/records to the CLA and also provide the necessary assistance to the CLA in this regard.
Meanwhile, for the adjudication or prosecution proceedings, the administrative structure shall be the same for both the State as well as the Central Food Safety Officers.
“The cases shall be filed before the respective Adjudicating Officers notified by the State/U T for the concerned District and accordingly, Food Safety Appellate Tribunal established by the State/UTs shall also deal with both kinds of cases arising out of inspections by the State as well as the Central FSOs. This provision also applies to the instances wherein other Central Government Officials have been entrusted with the responsibilities of the CFSO/Central Designated Officers such as Railways, Sea Ports and Airports,” reads the direction.
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