Although the Food Safety Standards Act has been in place for several years now, and it is now mandatory for all food-related businesses, including street food vendors, to register with the Food Safety Standards Authority of India, many restaurants and smaller vendors hesitate to apply for the licenses.
All food related businesses have been asked to register with the FSSAI before August 4 this year.
Since the experience in the past of many of these food vendors has been bad when it came to licensing and policing by the officials, many people have refused to apply for their unique identity cards.
The FSSAI, however, is very different since the emphasis is not on policing from outside, but on self regulation, Member of the scientific committee of the FSSAI J.S. Pai said on the sidelines of the One day workshop on Food Safety Act: “Know the Act & Regulations” here on Friday.
The intentions of this Act are good, and through its provisions, there is very little scope of harassment and problems. It is up to the State government and universities to raise awareness among the people, he said.
Even though the procedure is very simple, the vendor simply has to fill a form to declare that he is running a food-based business, many do not apply. The onus is on State government to ensure this happens, since it will make the vendors accountable, Senior Scientist of the National Institute of Nutrition R.V. Sudershan said.
Through their unique identity numbers, the name and location of the vendor as well as contact details will be available to the consumer. This will make them answerable, he said.
In terms of the consumers, there is a section of the FSSAI website that invites whistleblowers. These people will be working with the Centre or State governments to help ensure the quality of food is maintained, Aruna Kumar from the Central Food Technology Research Institute said.
The one-day workshop organised by the Food Science and Technology Department was aimed at educating business people in the food industry on the Act.
