KOLHAPUR: As many as 2,000 food selling businesses in the district have registered themselves with the food and drugs administration (FDA) in the last eight days.
The body appealed to vendors to register and obtain licenses before February 4, failing which it will impose a fine up to Rs 5 lakh and a jail term for defaulters.
U S Vanjari the assistant commissioner of Kolhapur said, "We have received good response so far. The drive will be complete on February 4. We appealed to all food vendors and businesses to comply with the Food Safety and Standards Act of 2006."
According to the act, all such businesses must be registered with FDA and must have license to operate. The businesses include grocery shops, hotels, stalls, canteens, roadside dhabas, sweet marts, commission agents, food processing units, vegetable merchants and other such agencies related to food.
Vanjari added that there are 27,000 businesses that are registered across the district, but many small businesses are not registered as they are unaware. "As per the act every business must be licensed. If a person is found operating a food business without license, he or she can be punished with a jail term of 6 months or fined Rs 5 lakh. If the business is unregistered, the fine is Rs 1 lakh," Vanjari added.
FDA will start another drive in February to review the status of food businesses. At that time, FDA will start taking action against defaulters, Vanjari added.
Among other administrative reasons, the main reason to make the registration and license compulsory is to ensure that food items are hygienic, healthy and without any impurities, he added.
In October last year, the FDA had seized adulterated edible oil worth Rs 1.05 crore as part of its drive against adulterated food products. Since then, however, the office has been busy in streamlining the food business licenses. At Kolhapur, the FDA has barely nine food inspectors to monitor the 27,000 registered businesses.
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