Centre picks state for pilot e-project on food licensing

Impressed by its use of technology to ban spurious drugs, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has chosen Gujarat to launch project for online registration and licensing of food stalls.

The local panipuri larri or the sandwich stall that serves you mouth-watering snacks will no longer be able to get away if it dishes out substandard food.  The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has chosen Gujarat to implement the pilot project for online registration and licensing of food establishments and vendors. This, because the food and drugs administration has already been successful in using technology to seize and ban spurious drugs across the state.

Which means, the state is ready to replicate the same in creating a database for registration and licensing of unlicensed food business operators and clearing the backlog of pending licences. The project is scheduled to begin by the end of February.

Under this project, all the shops selling food items will be registered and issued a licence.

Raghu Gudal and S Murthy, senior officials of the National Institute for Smart Government — a Hyderabad-based central government agency has developed a software for online registration and licensing of food vendors and establishments — met officials of the Food and Drugs Department on December 30 at Gandhinagar. They also met health minister Jaynarayan Vyas.

Last week, the food and drugs control department commissioner Hemant Koshia had been called to New Delhi by the FSSAI to intimate him about their decision to launch the pilot project in Gujarat.

Vyas told Mirror, “Gujarat is ahead of other states in developing an online system to check sale of spurious drugs. The food and drug administration department, through its online system, can locate the medical shop where the spurious drug is available and also record its batch number. The administration can block and seize the drugs by sending an SMS to all medical stores and even issue instructions online. The effective use of technology has prompted the Centre to choose Gujarat for implementation of the pilot project.”

Speaking to Mirror, Koshia said Gujarat was selected for the pilot project because of its computer network and infrastructure. Besides, the state has a ready online database of food establishments. Gujarat also has complete list of food laboratories online and a GSWAN connectivity which is considered the best in the country.

TWO-DAY TRAINING
The implementation of Centre’s pilot project in Gujarat is scheduled to begin by the end of February

As many as 200 food safety officers from across the state will be trained on online registration and licensing of food establishments and vendors during a two-day workshop. In the last week of January, the food and drugs control department will start accumulation and assimilation of data to prepare a database.

The central government has also asked the food and drugs administration to clear the backlog of pending licences by August 5.

The state administration has presently issued 70,000 licences to food business operators that have a turnover of more than Rs 12 lakh annually. There are roughly about two lakh vendors across the state who earn less than Rs 12 lakh annually. These vendors will also be covered under the ambit of registration and licensing.

Koshia said , “The biggest benefit of online registration is that it will speed up the licensing process. The online data will also help keep quality of food provided by vendors under check. Moreover, it will have details like the location and contact numbers of the vendors. Unknown hawkers who are presently not quality conscious will also be registered. The consumer stands to benefit a lot from this new system.”