About the difference between FSSAI and FoSCos

FSSAI

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is a statutory body maintaining food safety and standards. It is an independent organization that is administered by the Indian government’s Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. FSSAI comes under the Food Safety and Standards Act, of 2006, the aim of which is that the FSSAI is in charge of handling issues related to food in various Ministries and Departments. It also focuses on protecting and promoting public health.

The purpose of FSSAI is to maintain the standard of public health by establishing many different regulations of safety. It also supervises safety related to food in order to protect public health. It takes care of food misconceptions, and keeps awareness of food-related businesses about food, removing doubts related to food from the producer’s mind, consumer community, traders, and every single person that is involved in the food industry directly or indirectly. 

They keep an eye on food to ensure its safety by checking out the ingredients and things involved in food production. They take precautionary measures from growing food to its process of serving. They also work on different plans and establish food objectives, recently they put forth a goal of abolishing the use of synthetic trans fats by the year 2022. In a nutshell, the job of FSSAI is to take care of your food and to analyze the safety of the food that you consume. 

It takes care of the quality and standard of food, it also makes sure that the quality food is enjoyed by the consumer community. It gives access to quality food to the Indian citizens. They also guide street vendors regarding the food under Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 and frame those who violate food safety. 

Importance of FSSAI

The food standard and hygiene in charge in India is the FSSAI, it takes care of food security and provides quality and standard food to the consumer society in India. Its aim is to make sure that quality food products should prevail inside India and that all the citizens must enjoy standard food. 

They make every food producer and food server understand the importance of hygienic food and how it will help in the upliftment of the country from its producers to its consumers. FSSAI has come up with many different strategies that are beneficial for everyone, it spreads awareness regarding hygiene and metabolic disorders. It also varies the people regarding the benefit of food sharing, and food saving, and also helps them in understanding food waste management and sharing food with the needy ones.

Different food drives and campaigns are launched to reduce the wastage of food, it also observes World Food Safety Day. 

Read More: How can I get an FSSAI licence for my own product?

FSSAI Registration Documents 

Required documents for the FSSAI Registration for the type of food business and type of registration you are running. 

• Self-attested passport-size photograph of the authorized person. 
• Self-attested Aadhar card front and back of the authorized person. 

• Business premises address proof like a rental agreement or electricity bill or NOC from the landlord. 
• Declaration signed by the authorized person.

Fssai State & Central License

• Passport-sized photograph [directors/partners/proprietor]. 
• Identity proof like Aadhar and Pan card of directors/partners/proprietors. 

• Business premises address proof like a rental agreement or electricity bill or NOC from the landlord. 
• Blueprint and 8-9 photographs of the premises. 
• Company food products letterhead with seal and signature. 
• Company machines (if any) on letterhead with seal and signature. 

FoSCos

The Food Safety Compliance System (FoSCoS) was launched by FSSAI in 2012 for enhancing Food Licensing and Registration System (FLRS). It is an enhanced version for the issuance of Licence and Registration of pan-India FSSAI. It was established to replace the existing FLRS online registration system. FoSCoS is present in many states and UTs of India, it’s currently in Tamil Nadu, Goa, Puducherry, Odisha, Gujarat, Manipur, Chandigarh, Ladakh, and Delhi. 

The goal of FoSCos is to provide food services for businessmen who are operating food businesses. It also offers registration and license for Food Business Operators and other regulatory compliance services. The authority designed its updated cloud-based digital website in order to improve the Food Safety Compliance System (FoSCoS) platform. 

FLRS technology was outdated and its technical support was not available, because of this outdated version the users were facing many issues and because of its slow speed, the users were complaining about it. Keeping in view all these problems the software experts updated cloud-based digital websites and thus launched an improved, innovative, and expanded version of the licensing system. This is how the migration from FLRS to FoSCoS came into existence. 

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Why FSSAI switched to FoSCos?

As the government of India felt a need to make the Food Licensing & Registration System (FLRS) more transparent, they thought there should be a capable online application. Thus they designed a website that is user-friendliness, very well advanced in terms of technology, has better computation, and has increased intuitive capabilities. Thus FSSAI replaced the Food License Registration System (FLRS) and came up with an advanced well designed and more capable version known as Food Safety Compliance System (FoSCoS). 

FSSAI switched from (FLRS) to (FoSCoS) because the earlier implemented Food Licensing and Registration System was having errors and this shift helped the food business operators in operating business in a more user-friendliness manner and without any problems. This updated online application platform has introduced many ways in order to make food business operators (FBO) much more efficient and is also making different modifications and multiple enhancements in the website according to the need of the hour. 

FSSAI made this shift after realizing the need for an advanced, quicker, open-source application, it came with a source that is driven by artificial intelligence (AI) which is taking India to the next level in terms of the food business. This addition was easy but to convince FBO users was very different, the FoSCoS website developer made various efforts while convincing old FBOs about the new seamless transition.

That faced many challenges and has taken a lot of pain while ensuring that the new updated cloud-based version is more user-friendly and its user interface is much more advanced. The old FBOs were guided that it will be similar to the FLRI but you will witness many different features and you will feel it is more capable and also its loading speed is much faster. This shift from FLRS to FoSCoS was made by the government of India internationally in order to provide a seamless version to the FBOs. The FoSCoS is also adjusting and improving according to the feedback received from the customers. 

Objectives of FoSCoS

The Food Safety Compliance Scheme (FoSCoS) has many different objectives some of which are mentioned below: 

• FoSCoS wants to transform the framework of FLRS, which used to focus only on licensing. Its objective is to transform this licensing platform into a central food platform that will also act like a safety compliance regulatory food body. 
• To build a website for FBOs that will be much more advanced and user-friendly. An application that can take care of the needs of the users and should be capable of attracting traffic, in addition to this a platform that can be upgraded further and can provide potential services. 
• It focuses on enhancing the application as per the user’s performance, making it more effective in terms of processing plus it should be easy to use for the food business operators. 

FoSCoS Services 

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India offers the following services under this new updated cloud-based version: 

• It is in charge of guarding the food items and only allowing them when the item gets approved via permit or registration. 
• It only approves the food items that are stuffed naturally.
• It permits food items that are Imported and exported.
• Provide license service to different types like e-commerce, restaurants, noon meal, airport,  
• It is in charge of the extension of licenses and also amends the licenses which are used for the food producers.
• It also enrolls food business operators (FBO).

Read More: Top 10 Profitable Food Business Ideas In India

FoSCoS Registration 

For FoSCoS registration the FBO can visit the official website of FoSCoS and click on the signup option of the portal, in case the FBO is not a user of the FoSCoS portal. If the FBO is already a user of the FoSCoS portal then the FBO can simply log in to start its FoSCoS Registration. 

• Once the FBO will log in to the portal, a dashboard will be displayed.
• In the left menu click the License/Registration option and select New License/Registration option to apply. 

• Select the head office per the KoB details and select the appropriate application as per the food Business to be conducted. 
• Provide the necessary details in Form-B. 
• After filling out the form will provide details to apply for the registration. 

Features of FoSCoS

The following are the features of FoSCoS: 

• Enhanced processing speed with higher user traffic handling capability.
• Scalable architecture system that supports upgrades and additional modules. 
• One-stop Food Safety Compliance Portal designed to support integration with other FSSAI Applications.

• Online module for filing annual returns.
• User-friendly and self-intuitive Home page. 
• Availability of inspection reports in FoSCoS for seamless operations.
• Clear segregation of Kind of Business (KoB) specific list. 
• 360-degree profiling of FBOs and for authentication only captures the PAN Number, CIN Number, and GST Number, which can provide future authentication.
• Improved menu list and Dashboards for Licensing and Registering Authorities. 

Conclusion 

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India abbreviated as (FSSAI) is the legal authority in India that deals with the license and registration related to food business operators. FSSAI is the statutory body of rules and regulations that must be followed by the food business operators, it’s also the sole licensing and registration authority. It provides regulations to all food-related businesses like hotels, restaurants, grocery shops, manufacturers, eateries, importers, exporters, farms, food processing units, etc. FSSAI launched (FoSCoS) to enhance the already existing Food Licensing and Registration System. 

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