Introduction: FoSCos FSSAI

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India ("FSSAI") is a government agency established in 2006 under the Food Safety and Standards Act. Food Business Operators ("FBO")     in India must register with the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) in order to manufacture, process, store, distribute, and sell food goods. Food Licensing and Registration System ("FLRS") registration is done online on the FSSAI website.

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On June 1, 2020, the Food Safety Compliance System ("FoSCoS") was launched, replacing the FLRS's existing online registration system. FoSCoS is currently available in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Gujarat, Goa, Odisha, Manipur, Delhi, Chandigarh, and Ladakh, according to the FSSAI. Users from these States or UTs must now go to the FoSCoS FSSAI website and log in using their old FSSAI user ID and password.

FLRS has been improved with FoSCoS. It has grown naturally and incrementally in response to evolving regulatory requirements. FLRS registration on the former FSSAI website was antiquated, and there was no technical support. FLRS users complained about its poor pace. As a result, the FSSAI established FoSCoS, a cloud-based, new food safety compliance online platform, in order to improve, expand, and innovate the licensing system.

Until the FSSAI makes any additional announcement, FBOs with a license or registration of premises with Indian Railways and concerned authorities will continue to operate on FLRS, i.e. the previous FSSAI website. Consumer grievances will continue to be received by Food Business Operators (Pan-India), who will respond to them in a timely manner at FLRS until the improved version of the Consumer Grievance Module is developed in FoSCoS.

Website of FoSCoS FSSAI

The FoSCoS FSSAI website's home page is as follows: Two search bars at the top of the home page allow you to look for 'Standardized Food Products' and 'Eligibility of your food business' (as shown in the screenshot below).

The 'View all FSSAI standardised Food Products', 'Clubbing of Variants of Products', and 'View all Eligibility Criteria Details' buttons are located beneath the search bars. The food category name, food sub-category name, product name, and FSSR number can be accessed by clicking on 'View all FSSAI standardised Food Products.' When you select 'Clubbing of Variants of Products,' a PDF file with a list of Standardized Food Products with Variants opens. The 'View all Eligibility Criteria Details' button displays a PDF with a table listing the type of business, its criteria, the type of license/registration required, and the annual price.

The 'Track Application,' 'Know Your Officer,' 'FBO Search,' 'How To Apply,' and 'Application Processing' options/buttons are also available on the front page.

When you select the 'Track Application' option, the home page prompts you to input the Application Reference Number and Captcha Code. The FSSAI Application can be traced by providing the Application Reference Number and Captcha Code.

The 'Know Your Officer' option requires you to choose your state and district from a selection menu. The details of the Officer Name of the jurisdiction, his designation, office email, and type are displayed on the home page after the State and District are selected and the 'Enter' button is clicked.

By clicking the 'FBO Search' button, entering the Company Name, License/Registration Number, and Captcha Code in the boxes given, and then hitting the 'Search' button, any FBO can be found.

The 'How To Apply' option on the home page walks you through the process of applying for an FSSAI license or registration.

The 'Application Processing' option on the home page displays the phases of the Licensing/Registration Authority's processing of an FSSAI application.

The 'Apply License,' 'Apply for Registration Certificate,' 'Modification of License and Registration,' and 'Renewal of License and Registration' tabs are located at the bottom of the home page (below the five options/buttons mentioned above) and allow users to apply for or modify their license/registration.

However, users can access their granted FSSAI license/registration or FSSAI applications in progress on the old FLRS website for viewing purposes only in the beginning. Users will not be needed to take any action immediately after FoSCoS mitigation, with the exception of double-checking the accuracy of details in their license/registration and applications in progress. However, all manufacturers with a valid FSSAI licence must change their licence before December 31, 2020, to allow them to choose from the available list of standardised items.

FoSCoS FSSAI Goals

• To transition the FLRS from a license platform to a central food safety compliance regulatory platform.
• Build a technically advanced integrated application capable of compatibility with other apps, larger user traffic capacity, and future upgrades and functionality potential.
• To improve the application's user performance and make the application process effective and simple in order to increase FBOs' ease of doing business.
• To accomplish the bare minimum of physical documents while streamlining business process flows for FBOs applying online.
• To allow the application to seed business-specific details such as CIN numbers, PAN numbers, and GST numbers in order to ensure that FBOs are profiled and validated from all angles. For this aim, FoSCoS will be integrated with the Government of India's GST, PAN, MCA, and other platforms.

FoSCoS Characteristics

• FoSCoS is designed using cutting-edge technology with the goal of providing a modern, one-stop IT platform for food safety regulation needs across India. FoSCoS is envisioned as an umbrella system that integrates with the current IT platforms of the former FSSAI website, such as Food Safety Compliance via Regular Inspection and Sampling (FoSCoRIS), to enable smooth operations.
• Food Safety Connect-Complaints Management System, Food Import Clearing System (FICS), Indian Food Laboratory Network (InFoLNet), Audit Management System (AMS), adjudications and penalties, Food Safety Training and Certification (FoSTaC), Food Safety Mitra (FSM), and others are all designed to work together. Until FoSCoS evolves from a licence platform to a single compliance platform, these integrations will be done one by one in the future.
• FoSCoS has a solid design that may be expanded and improved in the future. The Home page has been redesigned to be more user-friendly, intuitive, and to include a smart search option for standardized items and eligibility searches for any food company. The manufacturer applicant must type the name of the food product he plans to manufacture in the text box provided on the webpage while applying for a license online at the old FSSAI website through FLRS. On the FoSCoS website, this function has been updated. Manufacturers will only be able to choose from a list of standardized food products on the website. For convenience, the standardized product will be classified according to the food category system.
• If the manufacturer's food product does not fall into one of the standardized product categories, the manufacturing FBO will apply under the categories of Proprietary Food, Non-specified Food, or Supplements/Nutraceuticals, as applicable. In certain circumstances, the previous FSSAI website's text box technique would be used. However, this new feature is only available to manufacturers that are also re-packers and re-labelers of food goods. The FoSCoS program will have a new online function for filing annual returns. Inspection reports will be available to FBOs.
• Instead of the whole set of 29 documents that was previously in the FLRS application, the required documents will be streamlined by KoB. Many paper-based declarations are being replaced with online checkbox declarations. In FoSCoS applications, there is a clear separation of KoBs; for example, nutraceuticals and new food categories have been incorporated as separate business categories under manufacturing.