FSSAI approves amendments to do away with Agmark, BIS

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) on Monday said that various amendments in food safety regulations have been approved to to do away with Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) or Agmark certifications for food products. In line with the concept of “One Nation, One Commodity, One Regulator”, the food safety authority said that once these amendments are finalised, food businesses will only require mandatory FSSAI certification and not need certifications from other authorities. This move will facilitate ease of doing business, it added. . reg

The food safety authority’s 43 rd meeting was held recently in New Delhi under the chairmanship of Health Secretary Apurva Chandra where several amendments to streamline food safety and stadards regulations were approved.

Amendments

“Various amendments across different Food Safety and Standards Regulations were approved in the meeting to do away with Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) or AGMARK certification for food products. After the amendments are finalised, food businesses would not have to go to different authorities for mandatory certification with only FSSAI certification being made mandatory for food products,” the official statement added.

A comprehensive manual of methods of analysis for ensuring regulatory compliance of the food products was also approved. ‘The amendments across different Food Safety and Standards Regulations were approved in the meeting for draft notification to invite stakeholder comments before finalisation. These regulations included the revision of standards of Milk Fat Products, as part of which the fatty acid requirements for Ghee will also be applicable for other milk fat products,” the official statement added.

FSSAI CEO G Kamala Vardhana Rao, CEO, FSSAI; officials from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Ministry of Law and Justice, Ministry of Micro among others attended the meeting. Representatives from industry associations, consumer organisations, research institutes and farmers’ organisations were also present in the meeting.