Eligibility for FSSAI licenses

It is mandatory for every FBO or Food Business Operator to obtain the food license in India and abide by the prescribed standards for it.  The standards for ensuring that the standard of the food items manufactures, processed, distributed, imported, exported meets the basic standards and is safe for consumption. The standards for FSSAI are prescribed by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India that needs to be fulfilled by every person.  The FSSAI number is the 16 digit number that is required to be printed on every food article by the business units. There are in total three categories for FSSAI license namely the basic license, the state license and the central license covering all scale of business units. Most of the times business units become skeptical about the category in which their unit will fall that makes the process of obtaining FSSAI license hard for them. But today we will make it easy for you to know the category applicable to you. Here are the eligibility criteria for each of the categories.

Eligibility for FSSAI licenses

Lawdef- Eligibility for FSSAI licenses

Basic Registration

The petty food operating business in India operating on a very small scale and having the annual turnover of less than 1 lakhs can apply for this license. The food businesses included in the category are as follows-

  1. Manufacturer or distributor selling the food in the form of the very small businesses like retailers, hawker, itinerant vendor or a temporary stall owner.
  2. Also the cottage industries indulged in food businesses.
  3. For the people who conduct the distribution of food including the one done for the religious purposes.

State Registration

The business unit having the activities on a larger scale than the petty food business operator are required to obtain this license.  The business unit having the annual turnover of more than 12 lakhs but below 2 cr fall under this category. In addition to this the production capacity of the business units also plays a role here in deciding the category of food businesses.

  1. The units producing the dairy products including the units for chilling milk who have the adequate equipments to handle milk from 501 litres per day (LPD) to 50,000 LPD or 2.5 million tons (MT) to 2,500 MT of milk solids per annum.
  2. Units processing the vegetable oils with the process of solvent extraction with the help of refineries including the expeller unit having the production capacity of 2 MT per day.
  3. The slaughtering units holding the capacity of maximum 50 animals and minimum 2animals in case of large animals, small animals maximum 150 and minimum 10 animals and the poultry farms having the capacity more than 50 and up to 1000 per day. Further in case of meat processing units the units with the capacity upto 500 kg of meat per day.
  4. Hotels having the 3 star rating or the rating below 5 Star.
  5. Wholesaler, retailer, manufacturers, marketers, restaurant owners and suppliers having the annual turnover upto 20 crores.
  6. The transport business owner who possess the 100 vehicles or wagons or have the annual turnover upto 20 cr.

Central license

The large scale Food Business Operators whose annual turnover exceeds the limit of 20 Cr falls under this category. Also, the business units having the branches in more than one state are required to obtain this license in the principal state where its principal place of business is located. In addition to this all the business units mentioned above whose production capacity exceeds the limit specified above are required to obtain the license under this category.