Things you should know about FSSAI

The food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) with headquarter at New Delhi lays down safety standards to regulate the manufacturing, distributing and storing of food articles and ensuring availability of safe food articles for human consumption.

FSSAI lays down procedures to establish laboratories all over India for examining nutritional levels in food particles. It is responsible for promoting public health by keeping a regular check on food quality. For gaining consumers’ confidence, FSSAI license is the must. If ignored, implications will follow and heavy penalties will be imposed on the unit.

90 % of food products have met prescribed FSSAI specifications. It takes around two months to obtain FSSAI License and three to six months for product approval being launched in the market. FSSAI does not check all the licenses but yes, they can pick up randomly for examination. Only sea products and produce/grains in the hands of fishermen and farmers respectively are out of the scope of FSSAI. Other types of food products like imported, fresh and packaged come under the lens of FSSAI.
FSSAI came into existence after previous food safety act, Prevention of Food Adulteration Act (PFAA), did not meet its policing abilities. The aim of FSSAI is what you eat is safe for consumption. FSSAI has given authority to consumers to file complaints if they found any product failing food nutritional requirements. Afterwards, FSSAI carries out the investigation of the food product in certified laboratories. Moreover, provision of compensation to the consumer is also provided.

FSSAI has made it mandatory to show certain labels for consumer satisfaction-

• FSSAI logo with its License
• Vegetarian/non-vegetarian Mark
• Hall Mark
• Ingredients
• Nutritional Value in percentage
• Manufacturing date and Best Before period

FSSAI aims at creating a network that connects all panchayats, public and consumers etc. to receive speedy and reliable information about food safety concerns.