The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has been established under Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 which consolidates various acts & orders that have hitherto handled food related issues in various Ministries and Departments. FSSAI has been created for laying down science based standards for articles of food and to regulate their manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import to ensure availability of safe and wholesome food for human consumption. Under this Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, Various central Acts like Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954, Fruit Products Order, 1955, Meat Food Products Order, 1973, Vegetable Oil Products (Control) Order, 1947, Edible Oils Packaging (Regulation) Order 1988, Solvent Extracted Oil, De- Oiled Meal and Edible Flour (Control) Order, 1967, Milk and Milk Products Order, 1992 etc will be repealed after commencement of FSS Act, 2006. The Act also aims to establish a single reference point for all matters relating to food safety and standards, by moving from multi- level, multi- departmental control to a single line of command. To this effect, the Act establishes an independent statutory authority – the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India with head office at Delhi. Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and the State Food Safety Authorities shall enforce various provisions of the Act. FSSAI has been mandated with the following key objectives with reference to Registration and Licensing of Food Business Operators:
 Framing of Regulations to lay down the Standards and guidelines in relation to articles of food and specifying appropriate system of enforcing various standards thus notified.
 Laying down mechanisms and guidelines for accreditation of certification bodies engaged in certification of food safety management system for food businesses.
In exercise of the powers conferred under section 92 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, FSSAI has proposed Draft of Food Safety and Standards Regulation, 2010 under which Part 3.2 makes it mandatory for all Food Business Operators in the country to be registered or licensed in accordance with the procedures laid down in the regulation. Hence Licensing or Registration of Food Business Operators (FBOs) shall be an important activity under FSSAI; this not only envisages integrating the individual licensing activities of various divisions of FSSAI under a single Licensing System, at Central or State Level, but also requires Registration of all Food Business Operators using Local Administration Bodies, when their activity does not require a License. All of these are covered under the Food Safety & Standards Regulation, 2010 under deliberation.

Fee For Grant/Renewal of License Registration/License Fee Per Annum in Rupees

1.Fees for Registration Certificate
Rs 100/-
2.Fees for License issued by Central Licensing Authority
Rs 7500/-
3.Fees for License issued by State Licensing Authority
(a) Manufacture/Miller
(I) Above 1 MT per day production or 10,001 to 50,000 LPD of milk or 501 to 2500 MT of milk solids Per Annum Rs 5000/-
(II) Below 1 MT of production or 501 to 10,000 LPD of milk or 251 MT to 500 MT of milk solids per annum Rs 3000/-
(b) Hotels -3 Star And Above Rs 5000/-
(c) All Food Service Providers including Restaurants/Boarding Houses, Clubs etc Serving Food , Canteen (schools, colleges, office, institution), Caterers, Banquet Halls with Food Catering arrangement, Food Vendor like Dabba Wallas etc. Rs 2000/-
(d) Any Other Food Business Operator Rs 2000/-

List of Food Business Falling under the Preview of Central Licensing Authority

1. Dairy Units including milk chilling units equipped to handle or process more than 50,000 liters of liquid milk/day or 2500 MT of milk solid Per Annum.
2.Vegetable Oil Processing Units and Units producing Vegetable Oil by the process of solvent extraction and refineries including oil expeller unit having installed capacity more than 2 MT per day.
3.All Slaughter houses equipped to slaughter more than 50 large animals or 150 or more small animals including sheep and goats or 1000 or more poultry birds per day.
4.Meat Processing Units equipped to handle to process more than 500 kg of meat per day or 150 MT per annum.
5.All Food Processing Units other than mentioned under (1) to (4) including Re-labelers and Re-packers having installed capacity more than 2MT/day except grains, cereals, and pulses milling units.
6.100% Export Oriented Units.
7.All Importer importing food items including food ingredients and additives for commercial use.
8.All Food Business Operators manufacturing any article of food containing ingredients or substances or using technologies or processes or combination thereof whose safety has not been established through these regulations or which do not have been a history of safe use or food containing ingredients which are being introduced for the first time into the country.
9.Food Business Operator Operating in two or more states.
10.Food Catering Services in establishments and units under central government agencies like railways, air and airport, seaport, defense Etc

List of Food Business Falling under the Preview of Registration

(a) Manufactures or sells any article of food himself or a petty retailer, hawker, itinerant vendor or temporary stall holder; or distributes foods including in any religious or social gathering except a caterer. OR
(b) Such other food businesses including small scale or cottage or such other industries relating to food business or tiny food businesses with an annual turnover not exceeding Rs 12 lakhs and/or whose:
a. Production capacity of food (other than milk and milk products and meat and meat products) does not exceed 100 kg/ltr per day OR
b. Procurement or handling and collection of milk is up to 500 liters of milk per day OR
c. Slaughtering capacity is 2 large animals or 10 small animals or 50 poultry birds per day or less

For more information or advice on application for FSSA licence, please write to mail@sethassociates.com

The Indian food market is set to more than double by 2025. The market size for the food consumption category in India is expected to grow from US$ 155 billion in 2005 to US$ 344 billion in 2025 at a compound annual growth rate of 4.1 per cent. In India, the food processing industry is one of the largest in terms of production, consumption and export prospects. Mega Food Parks Scheme (MFPS) is a programme of the Ministry of Food Processing Industry, Government of India, introduced in  the eleventh five year plan. The primary objective of the MFPS is to provide adequate infrastructure facilities for food processing along with the value chain from the farm to market. It will include creation of infrastructure near the farm, transportation, logistics and centralized processing centers. The main feature of the scheme is the cluster based approach. The scheme will be demand driven, pre-marketed and would facilitate food processing units to meet environmental, safety and social standards. The outcome will be increased realization for farmers, creation of high quality rural processing, reduction in wastage, capacity building of the producers, and creation of efficient supply chain along with the significant direct and indirect employment generation.

Though the Ministry of Food Processing Industry (MFPI) has supported development of 54 Food Parks in the country during tenth year plan, most of them are yet to be established. Against a physical target of 25 Parks during the 10th Plan, 18 Parks have been sanctioned so far. Of these, only 8 Food Parks have been established.Those established are facing problems of gross under utilization, besides being unable to attract entrepreneurs. Only 28 units are currently in operation in these 8 Parks.Ministry of Food Processing Industries had commissioned reputed external agencies to carry out diagnostic study cum evaluations of the Food Park scheme. The findings point out that the State Industrial Development Corporations or PSUs implement the scheme in the traditional industrial estate mode with unsustainable management and implementation arrangements. This has resulted in valuable real estate being acquired but utilized at low levels of efficiency. The scope for commercial development of these locations for promotion of the food processing industry is yet to be utilised. Major reasons for the poor functioning of parks are  Location and site related problems including high cost and unsuitability of locations,delay in providing basic infrastructure facilities like power, water, road , Poor management and implementation capabilities, Absence of strong backward linkages,weak linkages with the market The evaluation also suggested that the park will be successful only if infrastructure for  On

Farm Storage, Primary Processing , Minimal Processing, Retail Outlet, Mobile Processing Unit ,Mobile Pre-cooling Unit, Packaging Centre etc. are provided on a cluster basis, without insisting on all common facilities to be provided within the acquired area of the Park.

SALIENT FEATURES OF MFPS

1.      The scheme aims at facilitating and establishment of a vibrant food processing industry supported by an efficient supply chain management which would include collection centers, primary processing centers and cold storage infrastructure. The land area required would be ranging between 50 – 100 acres subject to a variation on various factors and regional elements. The scheme aims at establishing of 30-40 food processing units with collective investments of Rs. 250 crores.

2.      The scheme envisages a one time capital grant of 50% of the project cost (excluding land cost) subject to a maximum of Rs. 50 crores in general areas and 75% of the project cost in difficult and hilly areas i.e. North East Region including Sikkim, J&K, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and ITDP notified areas of the states.

3.      The project of MFPS would include core processing facilities such as farm proximate collection centers, primary processing centers, grading sorting and packing facilities, cold storage facilities, testing laboratories, cleaning, grading, sorting, packing facilities, food incubation and preservation centers, factory buildings, etc. This is not however exhaustive and indicative, because of the unique requirements of each MFPS.

4.      The scheme will be implemented on PPP mode.SPV involving stakeholders to manage the Park, private entrepreneurs will be holding a minimum of 51% equity.Project Management Agency (PM) will offer & handhold from concept to commissioning. There will be no restriction on the number of units, however restriction can be on the quantity of material to be handled. An SPV shall be body corporate registered under the Indian companies Act, 1956 with  three entrepreneurs which shall be independent of each other. In each SPV Atleast 26% of equity should be held by food processor(s) within the SPV. The combined net worth of the shareholder of the SPV should not be less than Rs. 50 crores with food processors having atleast Rs. 10 crores of net worth.  The SPV shall be under obligation to bring in atleast 20% of the project cost including the cost of land as their contribution. Government agencies can also become member of the SPV subject to maximum stake of 26%.

5.      The ministry of Food Processing would engage a programme management agency (PMA) to provide, management, consultancy, project management and monitoring support. For this purpose a monetary support to the extent of 5 % shall be provided to such PMA. PMA will assist in implementation of the scheme. The PMA shall be a reputed institution with extensive experience in project development, management financing and implementation of cluster infrastructure projects.

6.      The implementation process shall be carried out with the assistance of a special purpose vehicle (SPV). SPV will be fully responsible for execution ownership and management of the MFPS along with the support of financial institutions/banks, organized retailers, processors, service providers, framer organization and other related stake holders as equity holders of the SPV. In other words, SPV shall act as an implementation agency subject to certain eligibility conditions.

7.      SPV shall be responsible for the formulation of the detailed project, and its execution in a timely, transparent and efficient manner. Further, they are under obligation to procure land, setup of external infrastructure, obtaining statutory approvals including environmental clearance and to receive and utilize the funds under the scheme in most transparent and judicious manner.

For more information contact mail@sethassociates.com