The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India on 22nd September 2021 has published the Draft Food Safety and Standards (Approval for Non-Specified Food and Food Ingredients) Amendment Regulations, 2021 to further amend the Food Safety and Standards (Approval for Non-Specified Food and Food Ingredients) Regulations, 2017.
Through this amendment, regulation 4 which deals with the Procedure for grant of prior approval has been substituted as follows:
The manufacturer or importer of non-specified food shall submit an application in FORM – I along with necessary documents and fee to the Food Authority and the Food Authority shall scrutinize the application and information provided by the applicant. On preliminary scrutiny, deficiencies, if any, shall be informed to the applicant within 45 days from the date of receipt of application.
The Food Authority may either grant approval or reject the application, as per FORM-II, on the basis of the safety assessment of the article of food. If the approval is granted, the Food Business operator shall conduct and provide a post-market surveillance data on relevant Safety and efficacy parameters, within one year of placing the product in the market whenever asked by the Authority.
If a food business operator has reason to believe that the food for which the approval has been granted poses any risk to health, he shall immediately suspend the manufacture, import, sale, or distribution of such article of food and take steps to recall the same under intimation to Food Authority in accordance with the provisions of the Food Safety and Standards (Food Recall) Regulations, 2017.
