CHENNAI: Of the total 32,002 food outlets in Chennai, around 58 per cent of them are either certified or have submitted applications to seek certification as the deadline to apply for a licence for food business ended on December 31, 2017. The deadline to achieve 100 per cent registration across all districts has been fixed as January 15 after the e-service platform for the same purpose was launched earlier this week.
As per the recent data given by the Tamil Nadu Food Safety and Drug Administration (FSDA), around 14,000 outlets have not yet applied for the licences. While the enrolment drive by FSDA for food business operators to register for licensing is in its second phase in many districts across the state, designated officers have started issue of notices to the food establishment owners who have not registered even after being notified about the same.
“E-service is being encouraged by the department to achieve utmost registration of food establishments that includes hotels, restaurants, fruits-vegetable shops, sweet shops, pushcart vendors, retailers and provisional stores. The e-service is helping to increase the percentage of registered food outlets with an easy process of fee payment and document upload. The registration would ensure a check on food quality on all the food outlets,” said a senior official from FSDA.
Food business owners should submit the application to the common e-service centres and should submit it along with required documents and registration fees. “For the registration, all the food outlets should pay an amount of Rs 100, turnover being Rs 12 lakh or lower, while an amount of Rs 2000 has to be paid if the turnover is above Rs 12 lakh,” said R. Kathiravan, designated food safety officer.Officials say that the exact number of total registered food outlets in the state can be calculated by the end of the month after the online registration application process is over. If the food business operators fail to register themselves, they will be forced to pay a hefty fine or face imprisonment as per the regulations.
