Dec 14, 2012

FSSAI to hold licensing melas, workshops to educate FBOs of all states

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) will be organising licensing melas and workshops to educate food business operators (FBOs) in various states of India in the months of December 2012 and Janaury 2013.

The deadline for getting licensing and registration is February 4, 2013 (which would lapse three months hence). But some states have not started the process of licensing and registration yet.

In order to solve this problem, FSSAI has come up with this initiative so that they can highlight the importance of obtaining licenses and registering their establishments to the FBOs in various parts of the country.

The states participating in this licensing melas and workshops are Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. More than 5,000 FBOs are expected to participate in the licensing melas and workshops.

Manoj Naredi, former president, Federation of Jharkhand Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FJCCI), informed, “FSSAI is taking the initaitive to educate the food business operators so that they can easily obtain their licenses and also know the importance of food safety.”

“In Jharkhand, the licensing mela and workshop was slated to take place in Ranchi on December 22, 2012, but it has been postponed to January 7 or 8, 2013 due to some date issues,” he said.

Naredi added, “This licensing mela and workshop will be very informative for all the FBOs. The FBOs will be getting to know in details about the process of obtaining the license and thy will be getting a knowledge about how to take care of safety of food which will be a good for both human and animal consumption.”

“There are some hidden things in the licensing and registration process which the FBOs don't know. These will be discussed in the workshop. We will also be highlighting the packaging, storing and other aspects at the workshop. They can get themselves licensed and registered on the spot during the licensing mela and workshops. Around 100 to 150 FBOs from Jharkhand will be participating in this workshop,” he informed.

Lakshmi Kaushal, a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) official, said, “The licensing mela and workshop in West Bengal, which commenced on December 13, 2012, and concluded the following day, was very informative.”

“The workshops and seminars took place on December 13 at Bhanu Bhawan, Darjeeling and on December 14 at Siliguri Merchant Conference Hall, Siliguri. They were very informative for the FBOs. More than 500 FBOs participated and some of them who brought their documentation got themselves licensed and registered,” she informed.

The licensing mela and workshops are slated to take place in Surat, Gujarat on December 19, 2012; December 20 and 21, 2012 in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh; December 21, 2012 in Pune, Maharashtra and Balasore, Orissa; December 22, 2012 in Ranchi, Jharkhand; December 23, 2012 in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu; December 27, 2012 in Nagpur, Maharashtra; December 28, 2012 in Jaipur, Rajasthan, and December 30 in Bikaner, Rajasthan.

Facilities for participants & FBOs

 On-the-spot submission for all the papers needed for licensing

 Assistance in case of difficulty in filling up the documents and forms

 Solution to queries pertaining to the licensing of a food business operator

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