Why FICTAC?
A key mandate of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is to regulate import of food and ensure that it is safe and wholesome for human consumption. As per Section 25 of the Food Safety & Standard Act, 2006, all imports of articles of food are subject to the provisions of the Act. It stipulates that no person shall import into India any article of food in contravention of the Act or any rules and regulations made thereunder. Exercising the power of the act, the central government on the recommendation of the Food Authority notified the FSS (Import) Regulations, 2017, a single reference regulation for food import on 9th March, 2017.
Food Safety & Standards (Import), Regulations, 2017 provides for selective sampling & testing of food article on the basis of risk profile and parametersas set by FSSAI. Food articles when referred to FSSAI for clearance by the Customs Authorities are subjected to scrutiny of documents, visual inspection, sampling and testing in order to determine whether or not they conform to the safety and quality standards established and laid down under various Food Safety and Standards Regulations. If sample is found conforming then No Objection Certificate (NOC) is generated and if not conforming, then Non-Conforming Report (NCR) is generated. Step by step process for the clearance of food articles under import has also been explained in the Food Import Clearance chart produced below .
At present FSSAI has its Authorised Officersat 6 locations namely Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi, Cochin, Tuticorin covering 21 points of entries and has its own Food Import Clearance System (FICS) which is an online system, integrated with the customs ICE-GATE (Indian Customs Electronic Commerce/Electronic Data interchange (EC/EDI) Gateway) under SWIFT (Single window interface for facilitating trade). Customs department also implements the Risk Management system (RMS). With the addition of 27 new entry points all over India total points of entry shall go up to 48 in the near future. This will enable thorough review of all the article of food import in an efficient manner. Further, there are another 150 locations throughout the country where Customs officials have been notified by the FSSAI as their Authorised Officers for giving food import clearances at these points of entry.