FSSAI license

FSSAI Registration

The Food Safety & Standards Act, 2006 introduced to improve the hygiene and quality of food has brought about tremendous changes in the food industry. As per the Act, no person shall commence or carry on any food business except under a FSSAI license or FSSAI registration. Therefore, any food manufacturing or processing or packaging or distributing entity is now required to obtain a FSSAI License or Registration.

FSSAI Registration

FSSAI registration is required for all petty food business operator. Petty food business operator is any person or entity who:

• Manufacturers or sells any article of food himself or a petty retailer, hawker, itinerant vendor, juice stall, sweets shops or temporary stall holder; or
• Hawker selling packaged or freshly prepared food by travelling on movable cart or foot from one location to other.
• Small scale or cottage or such other industries relating to food business or tiny food businesses with an annual turnover not exceeding Rs 12 lakhs and whose:

• Production capacity of food (other than milk and milk products and meat and meat products) does not exceed 100 kg/ltr per day or
• Procurement or handling and collection of milk is up to 500 litres of milk per day or
• Slaughtering capacity is 2 large animals or 10 small animals or 50 poultry birds per day or less.

Petty food business operators are required to obtain a FSSAI registration by submitting an application for registration in Form A. On submission of a FSSAI registration application, the registration should be provided or application rejected in writing within 7 days of receipt of an application by authority.

FSSAI License - State

Any person or entity that does not not classify as a petty food business operator is required to obtain a FSSAI license for operating a food business in India. FSSAI license is of two types, State FSSAI License and Central FSSAI License. Based on the size and nature of the business, the licensing authority would change. Some of the types of entities that require FSSAI state license are:

• Hotel providing lodging, meals and other guest services - upto four star rating.
• Restaurants and bars having turnover of upto Rs.20 crores per year
• Club/Canteen
• Caterers having turnover of upto Rs.20 crores per year
• Food vending agencies having upto 100 vending machines in only 1 state
• Mid day meal caterers having turnover of upto Rs.20 crores
• Mid day meal canteens having turnover of more than Rs.12 lakhs per year
• Food product marketers with a turnover of upto Rs.20 crores per year
• Food retailers with a turnover of upto Rs.20 crores per year
• Food suppliers with a turnover of upto Rs.20 crores per year
• Food product distributors with a turnover of upto Rs.20 crores per year
• Food product wholesales with a turnover of upto Rs.30 crores per year
• Food transporters having upto 100 vehicles and a turnover of upto Rs.30 crores per year
• Dairy units processing over 500 liters of milk per day or 2.5 MT of milk solids per year
• Vegetable oil processing units with turnover of more than Rs.12 lakhs per year
• Slaughter house processing more than 50 poultry birds or 11 small animals or 3 large animals
• Meat processing unit with a capacity of more than 500kg of meat per day or 150 MT of meat per year
• All grains, cereals, pulses milling units without any limit on production capacity
• Food manufacturing or processing or packing unit with turnover of more than Rs.12 lakhs per year or production capacity of more than 100kg or 100 liters per day
• Cold storage unit with turnover of more than Rs.12 lakhs per year
• Cold + Atmospheric Controlled Storage with turnover of more than Rs.12 lakhs per year
• Storage unit with turnover of more than Rs.12 lakhs per year

FSSAI License - Central

Large food manufacturers / processors / transporters and importers of food products require central FSSAI license. Some of the types of entities that require FSSAI central license are:

• Five star hotels
• Restaurants with a turnover of more than Rs.20 crores per year
• Caterers with a turnover of more than Rs.20 crores per year
• Food vending agencies with more than 100 vending machines or having machines in two or more states
• Food product importers
• Food product exporters
• Selling food products through e-commerce
• Registered office of food business operators having operations in two or more state
• Food business activity in premises belonging to Central Government Agencies
• Departmental Canteens at the premises belonging to Central Government Institutions
• Food business activity in Airport or Seaport
• Food business activity in Railway Stations
• Food product marketers with turnover of more than Rs.20 crores per year
• Food product retailers with turnover of more than Rs.20 crores per year
• Food product suppliers with turnover of more than Rs.20 crores per year
• Food product distributors with turnover of more than Rs.20 crores per year
• Food product wholesalers with turnover of more than Rs.30 crores per year
• Food product transporters with turnover of more than Rs.30 crores per year and having more than 100 vehicles
• Proprietary or novel food manufacturers
• Mid-day meal caterers with a turnover of more than Rs.20 crores per year
• Food manufacturing or processing or packing unit with a production capacity of more than 2MT per day
• Dairy units with capacity to process more than 50,000 liters of milk per day or more than 2500MT of milk solids per year
• Vegetable oil processing units with a processing capacity of more than 2MT per day
• Slaughtering house with a capacity to process over 1000 birds or 150 small animals or 50 large animals per day
• Meat processing units with processing capacity of more than 500kg of meat per day or 150MT of meat per annum
• Cold storage units with a capacity of more than 10,000 MT
• Cold storage that is atmospheric controlled with a capacity of more than 1000 MT
• Food storage with a capacity of more than 50,000 MT

Important documents required for FSSAI Registration are as follows:

Food retailers or food business operators are the main recipients for FSSAI Registration. They need to submit the FSSAI License Documents in order to obtain the FSSAI License. The relevant documents required for FSSAI License are as follows:


Photo ID of the Food Business Operator.
Identity Proof Documents such as Ration Card, Department Issued ID, PAN Card, Passport, Senior Citizen Card, Aadhar Card, Driving License, Voter ID Card
Supporting documents such as No Objection Certificate by Municipality/Panchayat, Health NOC.


Following are the documents required for FSSAI License for State:



1. Duly completed and Signed Form-B (in duplicate) by the proprietor or partner or authorized signatory.

2. Processing unit blueprint/layout plan showing dimensions in metres/square metres and operation-wise area allocation. This is mandatory for manufacturing and processing units only.

3. Full address and contact details of the list of Directors/Partners/Executive Members of Society/Trust.

4. Equipments and Machinery name and list along with number, installed capacity and horsepower used. This mandatory for processing and manufacturing units onl.

5. Government Authority issued Identity and Address Proof for Proprietor/Partner/Director(s)/Authorized Signatory.

6. List of food category the business intends to manufacture. (in case of manufacturers).

7. Authority letter which includes the name and address, responsible person nominated by the manufacturer along with alternative responsible person indicating the powers vested with them viz assisting the officers in inspections, collection of samples, packing and dispatch (for manufacturers/processors).

8. A recognized/public health laboratory issued Analysis Report (Chemical and Bacteriological) of water to be used as ingredient in food. This is mandatory only for manufacturing and processing units.

9. Proof of premises possession. (Sale Deed/Rent Agreement/Electricity Bill, etc.)

10. Certificate or plan of Food Safety Management.

11. Copy and certificate obtained under Coop-1861 or Multi State Cooperative Act - 2002 in case of cooperatives.

12. Affidavit of Proprietorship or Partnership Deed or Memorandum and Articles of Association towards the constitution of the firm (optional) - (a) FSSAI Self-Declaration for Partnership.

13. Source of raw material for meat and meat processing plants.

14. In case of units manufacturing packaged drinking water, packaged mineral water and/or carbonated water, the pesticide residues report of water from a recognized public health laboratory must be produced.

15. No Objection Certificate (NOC) or a copy of License from the manufacturer (mandatory for re-labelers and repackers only) - (a) Declaration and Undertaking System Plan or Certificate.

16. In case of Milk and Milk Products processing, the business must produce the source of milk or procurement plan for milk including the exact location of milk collection centres.

17. Certificate from the Ministry of Tourism.

18. No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Municipality or local body.

19. Recall plan wherever applicable.

20. Form IX - Nomination of Persons by a Company along with the Board Resolution.

21. Self Declaration of number of vehicles - for transporters.

22. The declaration form - from Delhi or Himachal Pradesh.

These are the documents required for FSSAI License. The same must be carefully checked before submitting the application. You can read our blog on How to get FSSAI certificate to know about the process in detail.
It has become very important for food business operators, be it small or medium sized food business to obtain the FSSAI License in order to efficiently run the business. In order to obtain the FSSAI License, businesses have to submit the correct documents related to the food business after which the business would be issued the FSSAI Registration License.