Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has planned to further extend the date for mandatory food safety audit of food business operators (FBOs) under the FSS (Food Safety Auditing) Regulations Act of 2018.
31st Dec.’ 20 has been decided as the new last date for the audit. Previously, the FSSAI had ordered food businesses that hold Central licenses and fall under high risk bracket to finish the inescapable inspection by Sept 30, 2020.
But now, an order has been issued by FSSAI affirming that for food businesses that hold Central licenses and fall under high risk categories, the due date for compulsory audit has been rescheduled to Dec 31, 20. This is the third extension given for the mandatory investigation.
“Accordingly the food businesses are instructed to get such obligatory audits of their premise conducted positively by 31st Dec.’20,” states the order.
The FSSAI reckoned that this extension decision regarding the dates was taken keeping in mind the current scenario owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In an order dated 13th August, 2019, FSSAI had commanded the food businesses including dairy products and analogues (excluding products of food category 2.0); meat and meat products, including poultry; fish and fish products, including molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms; eggs and egg products; foodstuffs meant for particular nutritional uses (food for infant nutrition, etc.); and prepared food (catering, etc.), shall be liable to mandatory food safety probing.
Earlier, 31st Dec.’19 was set as the last date for completion of mandatory audit, which was later extended to June 30, 2020 and finally it has now been extended to 31st Dec.’20.