New Delhi, Nov 2 (KNN) The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has started a special drive for licencing and registration of food businesses from October 1, and has directed the state food safety departments to take it up to ensure food safety compliance under their jurisdiction.

As per the letter dated July 1st 2019, the drive will continue for three months i.e., till December 31.

The drive is to address four types of non-compliance which include FBOs that are running in the city without registration certificates which are required to obtain a license, FBOs continuing business with an expired license or running a business without a license, businesses that have obtained fresh license instead of renewing the previous one to avoid penalties and FBOs manufacturing and processing food products which are not endorsed on their food license.

Apart from these, the regulator, for FBOs’ convenience, has also launched the Food Products Identity Verification System (FPIVS), wherein FBOs can check standards of the food products they manufacture online. They also can identify the proprietary and novel foods. The order stated that the intent was to ensure that only standardised/approved food items were manufactured by FBOs.

Further, it has also made arrangements for concerned organisations to check validity of their licences through the Know Your FSSAI Licence page of the website for food licencing.

The order said that the Commissioners of Food Safety of all the states were directed to initiate actions under the special drive in their respective areas and submit an action taken report for the period between October 1 and December 31 to FSSAI by January 10, 2020.

“The timely completion and submission of the report will also add to the scoring of the states under the State Food Safety Index (SFSI) 2019-20,” stated the order.