NRAI to organise interactive session on FSS Act to educate restaurateurs

After September's interactive session with V N Gaur, chief executive officer, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the National Restaurant Authority of India (NRAI) has discovered the ironic fact that most stakeholders are still not fully aware about the new food law.

“We are now planning an interactive forum on the new food law, which will certainly go a long way in educating our members. The association has submitted its representation to the government seeking clarifications on a number of key issues,” Shilpi Varshney, marketing and communications in-charge.

“The main reason for this is that there is inadequate information on the new rules and regulations. And most of the restaurants in India do not have specialised legal teams to help them analyse the legal provisions and therefore obtain a better understanding of the prevalent food law,” she explained.

At this point in time, there are only two means of communication by which the members of the association come to know about the latest happenings in the industry: the in-house newsletters and e-mail, which it sends on a regular basis.

Although that is not a hassle, restaurateurs all over the country are wary about the implementation of the Act, and to an extent, it is justified too. After all, now that the Act has come into force, the ball is in their court to put in place systems with regard to ingredients, traceability and recall procedures.

And as if that was not enough, the onus has also been on them to make sure that their internal guidelines and norms were in accordance with various provisions of the Act. Varshney explained that the food safety standards were very elaborate. “Because of that, the perception in the industry is that the Act is very complicated and has very steep penalties,” she said.

“We have put forward a number of suggestions to the authorities, to which their response has been extremely positive,” she informed. “We actually sought clarifications to make certain complex provisions easier. That has made it easier to interpret and therefore implement these provisions.”