Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has decided to further extend the date for mandatory food safety audit of food business operators (FBOs) under the FSS (Food Safety Auditing) Regulations, 2018.
The new last date for the audit is fixed on December 31, 2020. Earlier, the FSSAI had asked food businesses holding Central licences and falling under high risk category to complete the mandatory audit by Sept 30, 2020.
FSSAI, in this regard, has issued an order saying that for food businesses holding Central licences and falling under high risk categories, the last date for mandatory audit has been extended upto Dec 31, 20. This is the third extension given for the mandatory audit.
“Accordingly the food businesses are directed to get such mandatory audits of their premise conducted by 31st December, 2020,” says the order.
The FSSAI reasoned that the decision to extend the dates was taken keeping in view the current situation due to Covid-19 pandemic.
FSSAI, in its order dated August 13, 2019, had directed 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 intended for particular nutritional uses (food for infant nutrition, etc.); and prepared food (catering, etc.), shall be subject to mandatory food safety auditing.
The last date for conducting mandatory audit was set on Dec 31, 2019, which was extended to June 30, 2020.
