FSSAI, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India issues licences allowing institutions to sell food, commercially. According to the FSSAI official website, any food business operator, in the business of manufacturing, processing, storing, distributing and selling food must mandatorily apply for and have an FSSAI Registration, taking their scope above and beyond restaurants to all other facets of food distribution.
Apart from serving as a legal certificate, an FSSAI License also called the Food Licence represents the quality of food. Applicants who register with the FSSAI, receive a unique 14 digit registration number with specific information and details that depend on the scale of operation, which additionally serves as a unique license number for the restaurant.
In 2014, the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India started the registration of the street food vendors for the country. Although this was technically a requirement, since India has a very unorganised street food vendor system, this was not given priority until then.
The FSSAI evoked Section 92 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, proposing the Draft of Food Safety and Standards Regulation, 2010 under which Part 3.2 makes it mandatory for all Food Business Operators in India to be registered or licensed through procedures laid down in the regulation.
This registration of the food vendors started since April 2014 in various cities across India, wherein, food vendors can go with valid documents to nearby General Resource Centres of their respective local office and go through the registration process.
To receive a food or registration licence, the FBO’s need to have a valid personal e-mail ID and mobile number which should be kept active. The registration also needed additional information like, the name of the FBO has to be spelt correctly in the application, matching the way it appears in the License. On successful submission of the application form, the system generated a unique Reference ID for the application form.
The applicant had to submit the acknowledgement, the online application form and a demand draft for the fee. Applicants can use one of many modes for making the payment. There are also a couple of documents and certificates that have to be submitted as well. Go through and review these documents and make sure they match the information added on the forms. Submit all this information to the State Authority or Regional Office of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, within 15 days from the date of submission of application online.
Business owners can handle the entire process through the office if they prefer, but they would have to make multiple trips back and forth accordingly. Since the process can be quite complex, some companies assist with it and after collecting the required documents, finish it from beginning to end. Since they have been handling this process for some time, they usually know the ins and outs of the system.