The FSSAI has notified draft regulations on Food Safety and Standards (Import) First Amendment Regulations 2017 and has invited comments and suggestions to reach the FSSAI office by 6 January 2018. These regulations will be finalized after the FSSAI takes into consideration the comments, suggestions, and views of stakeholders. These amendments are with regard to
- the shelf life of imported product at the time of port clearance
- The addition of a new provision in the ‘risk-based framework’ regulation.
The first amendment is related to Chapter – II Licensing of Food Importers in the Food Safety and Standards (Import) Regulations 2017. The following clause has been omitted from regulation 3.
(2) No article of food shall be cleared from the custom unless it has a valid shelf life of not less than sixty percent at the time of import.
Since clause (2) above has been omitted so the number (2) will be removed from clause (3), which will now read as the following clause
For the purposes of sub-regulations (1), the Food Importer shall register himself with the Directorate General of Foreign Trade and possess valid Import-Export Code.
In Chapter – III, Clearance of Imported Food by the Food Authority in regulation 5 after clause (5) the following will be added as clause (6)
(6) The custom shall not clear any article of food unless it has a valid shelf life of not less than sixty percent or three months before expiry whichever is less at the time of import.
In Chapter – VII Scheme for Risk-based Food Import Clearance clause 11 Risk-Based Framework the first clause is
(1) The Food Authority may review the risks associated with articles of food imports from time to time and adopt a risk-based framework and risk-based inspection process for clearance of imported articles of food.
The proposed amendment in this chapter is related two sub-clause (2) which has been amended and part (b) has been added and so the provision will now read as
“(2) for the purposes of sub-regulation (1) (given above for clarification)
(a) The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India shall profile the Importer, custom house agent, a manufacturer of the imported product, imported product, country of origin, source country of the consignment, port of entry, history of compliance and any other parameters as it deems fit for assessing the risk associated with the commodity
(b) The importer shall submit a certificate of sanitary export from authorized agencies in exporting countries for the categories of food as may be specified by the Food Authority from time to time.”
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