Through a notification dated 20 June 2017 the Food Authority has invited comments, views and suggestions from stakeholders on the draft notification related to amendment in Food Safety and Standards (Import) Regulations, 2017. The FSSAI had drafted the Food Safety and Standards (Import) Regulations 2017 in March 2017. The amendments sought to be made are as follows
In Chapter II of the regulation, relating to ‘Licensing of Food Importers’ under regulation number 3 the sub-regulation (2) is proposed to be omitted. This sub-regulation reads as follows “No article of food shall be cleared from the custom unless it has a valid shelf life of not less than sixty per cent at the time of import”
On omission of the above there will be changes in sub-regulation (3) also which will now become sub-regulation (2) and will read as For the purpose of sub-regulation (1), the Food Importer shall register himself with the Directorate General of Foreign Trade and possess valid Import-Export Code.”
The next change is In Chapter –III, relating to ‘Clearance of Imported Food by the Food Authority’.
The sub-regulation omitted from Chapter II will be inserted in Chapter III after sub-regulation number (5) and will be sub-regulation (6) and read as “No article of food shall be cleared from the custom unless it has a valid shelf life of not less than sixty per cent or three months whichever is less at the time of import.”
In Chapter VII, relating to ‘Scheme for Risk based Food Import Clearance’, in regulation number 11, for sub-regulation (2) Sub-regulation will have two clauses (a) and (b) which will be used for ‘risk based framework’ and ‘risk based inspection process’ for clearance of imported articles of food.
Clause (a) is present in the regulation and reads as
(a) The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India shall profile the Importer, Custom House Agents, imported product, manufacturer of the imported product, country of origin, source country of the consignment, port of entry, compliance history and any other parameters deemed fit for profiling the risk associated with the commodity.
After clause (a) the FSSAI proposes to insert the following to sub-regulation
(b) The importer shall submit sanitary export certificate from authorized agencies in exporting countries for certain food categories as may be specified by the Food Authority from time to time.
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