FSSAI to take action on Diwali Sweet Sellers

Food safety is indeed an extensive concept that covers the entire supply chain of a food business. There’s no doubt that it impacts the whole food industry, right from the stage of manufacturing or processing, to stock handling, delivery and even storage of the food items. An FSSAI registration ensures that the food-contamination, adulteration, and spreading of the disease-causing pathogens get ruled out completely.

Last year, Diwali season was been marked by numerous cases of food safety violations at the end of various suppliers of sweets & confectionery throughout the nation, both having & not having FSSAI registration. Likewise, this year the FSSAI authority has spotted endless instances of non-compliance by many sweet-sellers & confectioners. 

A vast majority of these traders are not having FSSAI registration & license.

1. How many shopkeepers are following FSSAI compliance?

Very disgracefully, there are only a few sweet-sellers & confectioners, who properly follow the FSSAI compliance. Ahead of the Diwali festival, FSSAI has revealed that only 1/4th of the shopkeepers are having an FSSAI registration or license.

• In Vishakhapatnam, only 25% of the sweet shops were found to have the FSSAI registration or license.
• 12 shops were surveyed by FSSAI in Vishakhapatnam, only 3 of them had FSSAI registration.
• In Vizianagaram, 8 stalls were surveyed by FSSAI, that were eligible for FSSAI registration. Shockingly only 1 stall had the mandatory FSSAI registration.
• Similarly in the Kurupam market of Vishakhapatnam, only 50% of shops had FSSAI licenses.
• Besides, many cases of those shopkeepers were detected where the FSSAI licenses were not renewed.

2. Which other food safety norms are being violated?

Apart from the non-registration, various other food safety violations have been traced by the FSSAI department. This includes violations of legal metrology rules.

3. What are the FSSAI legal metrology rules?

The legal metrology rules framed by FSSAI state that it is mandatory to specify and print the following product information on the product package by the manufacturer:-

• List of ingredients, 
• Expiry date, 
• Place of manufacturing, 
• Maximum Retail Price (MRP) and 
• Manufacturer’s customer care number 

4. How many sweet sellers follow the legal metrology rules?

As per FSSAI, there is hardly any sweet seller who follows the legal metrology rules. 

• About 95% of shopkeepers are selling sweets procured from outside. Since they didn’t know the food processing method and conditions, they could not mention the said details on packets. 
• Rest 5% of shopkeepers were preparing the sweets on their own, but they do not follow the guidelines laid down by FSSAI and legal metrology.

5. What legal action will be taken on defaulters?

Food safety authority has stated that if while inspection it is found that safety norms are not being followed or if FSSAI license is missing, a legal notice shall be issued to such defaulting shopkeeper. Even then, if the shop doesn’t comply, strict penal action shall be taken against such a shopkeeper.

6. How to stay safe of legal action by FSSAI?

No doubt…. Prevention is better than cure! The best way to avoid any legal action by the FSSAI department is to timely get the FSSAI registration or license.

Moreover, the cost involved in getting an FSSAI registration or license is far less than the heavy penalty that may arise in the case of non-compliance.

So, spare the penalty amount & obtain FSSAI registration instead!

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