INDORE: Even as food safety and standards authority of India (FSSAI) and its officers in state claim to have made concerted efforts and repeatedly postponed the deadline since the Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA) came into existence, five years later a large number of food operators and vendors are still reluctant in taking licence and registration.
While so far deadline for obtaining license and registration has been extended eight times since the act was implemented, yet another deadline for obtaining license and registration is about to lapse on August 4. Experts opine that since government postponed the deadline repeatedly, people have started taking the act lightly. "Delay in deadline is a reason that the department is unable to take strict action against defaulters who are apparently benefitting by violating the rules," an official said.
According to food safety officers, there are roughly 35,000 food business operators in city. Nearly 6,000 big food operators have licenses and 24,000 small-scale operators have obtained registration so far. However, more than 5,000 are yet to comply with the mandatory directives. In the country, only one out of every 15 food businesses is registered with the food safety watchdog FSSAI.
As licensing and registration process is the first step towards implementation of FSSA in the country, it yet to be checked whether food business operators are actually maintaining the standards.
"Government has given ample time to operators for obtaining license and registration from food and drug administration (FDA). It is been five years the act came into existence. August 4, 2016 is the latest deadline. ," said food safety officer, Manish Swami.
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