DINAKARAN NEWS

Camps to register food biz entities

Tirupur: As more than 10,000 unregistered food-related entities in the district are facing the deadline of December 31 for registration or to obtain a licence under the Food Safety and Standards Act, the administration has planned to conduct five camps to reach them.

The first camp will be held at Annapoorna Hotel on Palladam Road on Friday. The entities can submit the required documents and complete the online registration process.

As per recent enumeration conducted by the district food safety and drug administration (FSDA) department, the district has 18,588 entities, including manufacturers, packers, wholesalers, dealers, retailers, hawkers, street vendors, warehouses and transporters in the food industry. As many as 10,303 entities are yet to register.

"So far, 8,285 entities have obtained the licence or registered. The department was creating awareness about it and explained the unregistered entities about the mandate," said K Tamil Selvan, FSDA's designated officer for Tirupur.

"Once they do, it would help the department to keep tab on the food safety. As per the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), each entity should have a food safety supervisor among their employees. The department will provide training on the food safety and standards to them," said Tamil Selvan.

Besides, the department has been conducting meetings with the respective associations to provide education about the food safety.

The fee for the registration is Rs 100 for entities with annual turnover of less than Rs 12 lakh and Rs 2,000 for those who exceed Rs 12 lakh. In case of the food manufacturers, they should pay Rs 3,000 for the licence.

FSSAI enlists 15 agencies to audit food safety

This is the first time the food authority has taken a step like this in order to strengthen the food safety surveillance system in the country.

New Delhi: Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) has empanelled 15 national and international agencies to audit food safety and hygiene standards of canteens, cafeterias and hostel mess of several IITs and IIMs. 

Some agencies which have been empanelled are DNV, Bureau Veritas, Intertek, MS Certification, IRCLASS, SGS, BIS, TUV and Indocert. 

This is the first time the food authority has taken a step like this in order to strengthen the food safety surveillance system in the country. The audit will start with select large central institutes such as IITs in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Guwahati, AIIMS (Delhi and Jodhpur), IIM (Ahmedabad and Kozhikode), IISc Bangalore and IISER Kolkata.

FSSAI orders food safety audit in IITs, IIMs and AIIMS

New Delhi, Dec 14 () Food regulator FSSAI today said it has ordered safety audits of the canteens at 10 large educational institutes, including IITs, IIMs and AIIMS, in view of complaints with regard to food safety and hygiene standards.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) said that the audit will be done by empanelled 15 agencies and they will be given one-month time to submit report.

The FSSAI said that audit has been ordered as number of cases of food safety issues have been reported from hostels/canteens of various academic institutions in India.

"In view of this, FSSAI has ordered special food safety audits of the canteens, cafeterias, hostel mess etc of 10 select large central institutes of higher education like IIT (Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Guwahati), AIIMS (Delhi and Jodhpur), IIM (Ahmedabad and Kozhikode), IISc Bangalore and IISER Kolkata," the FSSAI said in a statement.

To strengthen the food safety surveillance system, the FSSAI has taken up audits of food business operators through third-party audit agencies.

It has empanelled 15 audit agencies in accordance with the Food Safety and Standard (Food Safety Auditing) Regulation, 2017.

The audit in select 10 institutes will help to check whether hostel mess/canteen/cafeteria where food is handled in these institutions comply with the food safety and hygiene standards prescribed under the food safety law.

"These reports will give an insight into the existing standards of food safety and hygiene of these canteens/ hostel mess etc and will help FSSAI to identify the gaps," the authority said.

The FSSAI expected that the results of these audits will serve as guidance to these institutions to improve and maintain the standards of food safety and hygiene in their premises, the statement said.

The authority has empanelled national and international food safety audit agencies like DNV, Bureau Veritas, Intertek, MS Certification, IRCLASS, SGS, BIS, TUV, Indocert among others."For the time being these agencies have been provisionally empanelled since the regulation is still at draft stage," the FSSAI said