The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (“FSSAI”) has notified Food Safety and Standards (Food Safety Auditing) Regulations, 2018 (“Regulations”) with a view to improve food safety standards all across India dated 29^th August, 2018. These Regulations guarantee auditing of Food Business Operators (“FBO”) through third-party private auditing agencies.

This Regulation is applicable to the FBOs established in India for conducting of audits by third party agencies.

These regulations impose the following requirements on FBOs:

1. That the auditing must be done from a valid auditing agency recognized by FSSAI,
2. Food Businesses will be classified on the basis of risk factors like food type, intended customer use, nature of activity of the business, and such other factors.
3. Frequency of Inspection conducted by Central licensing Authority/ State Licensing Authority will be based on the quantum of satisfaction of the audit reports,
4. During the audit process, the auditing agencies will not only check compliance of food safety measures but also on the basis of the Act and Rules,
5. The FBOs will have to maintain records of audit findings and rectification of the same for a period of 5 years.

Further to the recent notification, a Press Release was made by the FSSAI to make further clarifications that such third party auditing agencies will be used to rate these FBOs under the FSSAI’s Hygiene Rating Scheme and Responsible Place to Eat Scheme under the project of ‘Serve Safe’.

Source: Food Safety and Standards Authority of India

Share this: