The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) will be organising licensing melas and workshops to educate Food Business Operators (FBOs) in various states of India in December 2012 and January 2013.
The deadline for getting licensing and registration is February 5, 2013 (which would lapse three months hence). But some states have not started the process of licensing and registration yet.
In order to solve this problem, FSSAI has come up with this initiative so that they can highlight the importance of obtaining licenses and registering their establishments to the FBOs in various parts of the country.
The states participating in this licensing melas and workshops are Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. More than 5,000 FBOs are expected to participate in the licensing melas and workshops.
Manoj Naredi, Former President, Federation of Jharkhand Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FJCCI), informed, “FSSAI is taking the initiative to educate the FBOs so that they can easily obtain their licences and also know the importance of food safety.”
Naredi added, “This licensing mela and workshop will be very informative for all the FBOs. The FBOs will be getting to know in details about the process of obtaining the license and they will be getting a knowledge about how to take care of safety of food which will be a good for both human and animal consumption.”
“There are some hidden things in the licensing and registration process which the FBOs do not know. These will be discussed in the workshop. We will also be highlighting the packaging, storing and other aspects at the workshop. They can get themselves licensed and registered on the spot during the licensing mela and workshops. Around 100 to 150 FBOs from Jharkhand will be participating in this workshop,” he informed.
Lakshmi Kaushal, a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) official, said, “The licensing mela and workshop in West Bengal, which commenced on December 13, 2012, and concluded the following day, was very informative.”