The Food Safety & Standard Act of India stated that the Food Safety Compliance System (FoSCoS) will become operational in India from November 1st 2020. The system was already functioning in 9 States & Union Territories from June. The States in which FoSCoS was functioning are Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Chandigarh, Odisha, Goa, Puducherry, Manipur and Ladakh.
The announcement also said that since 2011 the online FLRS (Food Licensing and Registration System) was the most important factor of the licensing network. It was operational in every State and approx 70 lakh licenses as well as registrations were issued till date.
The announcement said that FSSAI is initiating its new cloud-based improved food safety compliance online platform which will commonly be known as FoSCoS. It is going to reinstate the current Food Licensing and Registration System (FLRS).
What is FoSCoS?
Food Safety Compliance System is anticipated towards providing one stop for all activities covered by the Food Business Operator with the FSSAI department[1] for any regulatory compliance. Food Safety Compliance System was integrated with the FoSCoRIS Mobile Application and soon it is going to be included with the current IT platforms of FSSAI. Though, improvement notices, sample management, audit management system, adjudications and many more activities or elements should be enabled in a phased method in the upcoming time.
Food Safety Compliance System is a new approach commenced for producer of standardized food goods. For manufacturer of non-specified food products, nutraceuticals or supplements, proprietary food products or any added substances to food – the approach will remains to be according to Food Licensing and Registration System. All the other type of food businesses that consists of catering, transport, storage, etc the licensing or registration will be based on approach of broad category.
Idea behind this FSSAI Announcement
Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) have upgraded from FLRS ( Food Licensing and Registration System) to FoSCoS (Food Safety Compliance System) to make food business services simple and improved for FBO (Food Business Operator).
Food Safety Compliance System replaces the present online Food Licensing and Registration System and users of the above mentioned States or Union Territories are required to visit the official website of Food Safety Compliance System and login through same user ids and passwords for any services they want to avail.
Food Business Operators having License or Registration for Indian Railways. The concerned establishment is required to use the Food Licensing and Registration System till any further statement from the FSSAI Regulations.
Food Business Operators for Pan-India will keep on receiving Consumer Grievances and should respond to these complain in a time-bound manner at Food Licensing and Registration System only.
Objective of the FoSCoS
A basic objective of the Food Safety and Compliance System is as follows:
- To create different matrix for district and state wise Food Safety Compliance;
- Food Safety and Compliance System is developed to create a Food safety compliance authentication platform.
- To reduce the time of the scrutiny process and action commenced.
- Food Safety and Compliance System is launched to build a transparent organization within the inspections structure.
- Creation of a platform to authenticate and validate the inspection information.
- To make sure that the examination are done and it should be done without any variation.
- The process framed in the Food Safety and Compliance System should start Quick Response system during the emergencies of Food Safety.
Enhanced and New features of the Food Safety and Compliance System
The following are the Enhanced and New features of the Food Safety and Compliance System-
- Improved processing speed with higher traffic user handling potential and a measurable system that can maintain future improvement and addition in the modules.
- Food Safety and Compliance System is a one-stop Food Safety Compliance Portal that is designed to support the combination with other FSSAI Applications.
- The standard shift in Licensing for Manufacturers with selected Standardized Products.
- Easy to use and self-intuitive Home page that provides smart search options for License Eligibility criteria for Standardized Products.
- New element for filing of Annual Returns online.
- An inspections report from FoSCoRIS is now available in Food Safety and Compliance System for seamless operations.
- Kind of Business specifies the list of required documents to be uploaded.
- Clear separation of Kind of Business in Food Safety and Compliance System, for example, Nutraceuticals and fresh foods has been added as separate category under Manufacturing.
This new integrated platform will now enable the licensing, registration and filing of annual returns regulatory as well as compliance functions at one single platform.
Services Offered by Food Safety and Compliance System
The following services are offered to Food Business Operators in the FSSAI’s new platform-
- Approval of Fortified Food Products on License or Registration
- Approval of Organic Food Products
- License for business Head Office
- License for E-Commerce, Mid Day Meal & Airport
- License for Exporters and Importers Food product
- License for Food Manufacturers consisting of Renewal and Modification
- License for Proprietary food
- License for Restaurants
- Periodical Return for Exporter
- Registration for Petty FBOs
- Responding to Reverted Applications
- Surrendering of a license
- Transferring of a License
How FosCOS is better than FLRS?
FoSCoS is similar to FLRS so that customers have expediency in shifting to Food Safety and Compliance System. The main change is the modification of licensing process for manufacturers which is based on the new standardized product list. This is going to help in a faster grant of licenses and eliminate the errors. The Food Safety and Compliance System is selection-based procedure for manufacturers of standardized food products. It also offers the element for filing of online FSSAI Annual Return. The return for the Financial Year 2019-2020 is going to be filed online. Now the Food Business Operators can file the online return that excludes postal delays. With the start of this, obligatory documents were modernized and several paper-based declarations are replaced with tick-based declarations in the website.
Conclusion
The main subject is to perk up the ease of doing business for the food business operators & also develop the user experience. The States and UTs have been given instructions for capability building among the officers and Food Business Operators, to make sure the smooth evolution from FLRS to FoSCoS.
Read our article: FoSCoS for FSSAI License in India: A Replacement of Food Licensing and Registration System
