|
|
|
You can get e-magazine links on WhatsApp. Click here
|
|
|
|
|
|
Scaling food processing sector: Report urges shift to ‘Compliant by Design’
|
|
Wednesday, 27 May, 2026, 14 : 00 PM [IST]
|
|
Our Bureau, New Delhi
|
While India’s food processing sector enters a period of unprecedented growth, a new report by TeamLease RegTech reveals a sobering reality that the industry’s backbone is struggling to keep pace with a mountain of regulatory requirements.
The report titled, ‘Decoding Compliance Management for the Food Processing Industry’, highlights that for the MSMEs that constitute 98% of the sector, scaling operations triggers a staggering increase in legal oversight. A typical mid-sized, multi-establishment enterprise is now tasked with managing more than 3,000 distinct compliance obligations every year and has to seek over 30 approvals across different stages of the business.
While the sector contributes 7.93% to manufacturing and 17.6% to overall GVA and supports millions of livelihoods, it operates within a regulatory environment that continues to expand in scale and scope, making technology-enabled visibility and coordination essential. The framework spans central, state and local levels, with 2,042 compliances at the central level and 1,243 at the state level.
The report argues that MSMEs must become compliant by design to grow in the sector. Rather than viewing regulation as a constraint, forward-thinking enterprises must embed compliance into their core operational infrastructure.
Rishi Agrawal, co-founder and CEO of TeamLease RegTech, said, “The domestic demand in the food processing sector has been on a high-growth trajectory for years but the infrastructure to support it must be fortified. To scale effectively, firms can no longer treat compliance as a back-end burden, they must adopt a proactive risk-based and assurance-based approach. This requires a comprehensive ecosystem comprising digital systems, trained personnel and management oversight, supplemented by periodic third-party audits and reliable regulatory partners. Without this strategic shift, the mounting weight of compliance becomes more than just an administrative hurdle, it becomes a tangible barrier to national and global expansion.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|