Through a letter dated 5 February 2018, the FSSAI has informed Commissioners of Food Safety of all States and UTs and Central Licensing Authority FSSAI about the system failure in the FLRS for licensing/registration. The Food Licensing and Registration system (FLRS) is an IT-enabled system that was launched by the FSSAI to facilitate FBOs to apply for licensing and registration certification online.
It has now come to the notice of the FSSAI that since the last quarter of December 2017 technical glitches have cropped up in the FLRS system. Due to these technical glitches some FBOs, whose licenses were due for renewal, was unable to obtain renewed licenses. This was either because the FBOs could not pay the online fees or because they were unable to upload requisite documents or for reasons which can be directly attributed to technical issues. Because of this, a number of licenses of FBOs expired for no fault from their end. The FSSAI has, therefore, decided that FBOs whose licenses could not be renewed during this period will be allowed to continue their food businesses.
The functioning of the FLRS is likely to normalize by 15 February 2018. Once it is normalized it will be communicated and a window will be provided to all such FBOs whose licenses expired during this period so that they can renew their application, provided that they fulfill the eligibility criteria. The FLRS system website says that the FLRS application is being upgraded and that the inconvenience is regretted.
In December 2017 the FSSAI had also issued a notice inviting suggestions, views, and comments from stakeholders about the revamping and modification of the FLRS system so that it could work with greater efficiency. They had also provided a format on which stakeholders had to provide the comments according to the relevant section.
Leave a Reply