FSSAI, Eligibility and Applicability – FSSAI Registration and Licensing

FSSAI stands for Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. This authority ensures that all those who are in the food business, including those involved in manufacturing, processing, storage, distribution, sale, and import of food, follow certain set standards and guidelines that are scientifically based, which ensures that food product is hygienic, has met the quality standards and can be safely consumed by humans.

The FSSAI further has two kinds of approval:

• License
• Registration

A registration is usually for all those involved in petty food businesses

A license is for all others who are in the food business but do not classify as a petty food business and thus, do not fit in the criteria for a registration.

Further, the FSSAI license has two types:

• State FSSAI License
• Central FSSAI License

An FSSAI license application or a registration is carried out by the submission of the necessary documents but first, requires the food business operators to fit into the eligibility criteria and these criteria decide whether they need to apply for a registration or license and if a license, then whether State or Central.

Eligibility for Applying for an FSSAI Registration

Petty food business operators (FBOs) are eligible to apply for FSSAI registration and includes the following:

• Those who manufacture or sell food items either themselves or via a retailer, hawker, itinerant vendor or a temporary stall
• Those who distribute food, which also includes, in any religious or social gathering except a
• Other food businesses including small scale or cottage industry or such other industries relating to food business or tiny food businesses with an annual turnover not exceeding Rs 12 lakhs and those whose:
• Production capacity of food, other than milk and milk products and meat and meat products, does not exceed 100 kg/ltr per
• Procurement or handling and collection of milk is up to 500 litres of milk per day or up to 5 metric ton (MT) of milk solids per annum.
• Vegetable oil processing units, including units that are producing vegetable oil by the process of solvent extraction and refineries including oil expeller unit with a turn over of up to 100 kg or ltr per
• Meat processing units with a production of more than 100 kgs per day or 30 MT per
• Slaughtering capacity is 2 large animals or 10 small animals or 50 poultry birds per day or
• All food processing units other than mentioned above including repackers with a capacity of up to 100 Ltr /Kg per
• Cold storage including the Storage Excluding Controlled Atmosphere+ Cold as well as cold and refrigerated storage and cold storage which is temperature controlled, each having a turn over of up to Rs 12 lakhs per annum.
• Wholesalers, retailers, distributors, and suppliers having an annual turnover of up to Rs 12 lakhs.
• Dhaba owners and other food vending establishments along with clubs and canteens having up to Rs 12 lakhs turnover per
• Hotels and Restaurants with a turnover of up to Rs 12 lakhs per
• Transporters with an annual turnover of up to Rs 12

Eligibility for Applying for an FSSAI License

A license is for food business operators that do not classify as petty food businesses.

The eligibility for food business operators for a State FSSAI License include-

• Dairy units, including milk chilling units that are equipped to handle or process milk from 501 litres per day (LPD) to 50,000 LPD or 2.5 million tons (MT) to 2,500 MT of milk solids per
• Vegetable oil processing units and units that vegetable oil by the process of solvent extraction and refineries, which include oil expeller unit that produces up to 2 MT per day or have an annual turnover of Rs 12 lakh and
• Slaughtering units that a have a capacity in case of large animals of more than 2 and up to 50; for small animals capacity more than 10 and up to 150 and for poultry birds capacity more than 50 and up to 1000 per
• Meat processing units that have a capacity of up to 500 kg of meat per day or of 150 MT per
• All food processing units which even includes re-labellers and re-packers that have a capacity of more than 100 kg per litres and up to 2 MT per day and includes all grains, pulses and cereals milling
• Storage businesses excluding that which have controlled atmosphere and cold, that have a capacity of up to 50,000 For storages that are cold and refrigerated, the eligibility criteria is a capacity of more than 10,000 MT and for storages that have cold and controlled atmosphere too, the eligibility capacity is more than 10,000 MT.
• Wholesalers that have an annual turnover of up to 30
• Retailers, distributors, suppliers as well as caterers with a turnover of up to 20 crores per
• Dhaba owners, or owners of other food vending establishments as well as clubs and canteens that have an annual turnover of 12
• Hotels that have a minimum of 3-star rating and below 5 star.
• Restaurants that have a turnover of up to Rs 20
• Marketers that have a turnover annually of 20
• Transporters that have a minimum of 100 vehicles or wagons, or an annual turnover of up to 3

The eligibility for food business operators for applying for a Central FSSAI License include-

• Dairy units including milk chilling units that are equipped to handle or process more than 50,000 litres of liquid milk per day or 2500 MT of milk solid per annum.
• Vegetable oil processing units and units producing vegetable oil by the process of solvent extraction and refineries including oil expeller units that have a capacity of processing more than 2 MT per
• Slaughtering units which handle more than 50 large animals or 150 small animals or more than 1000 poultry birds per
• Meat processing units that are processing more than 500 kg of meat per day or 150 MT per
• All food processing units including re-labellers and repackers that are processing more than 2 MT per day except grains, cereals and pulses milling
• All manufacturers of proprietary
• All 100% Export oriented
• All importers who are importing food items including food ingredients and additives for commercial
• Storage units other than those having controlled atmosphere and cold environment having capacity of more than 50,000 Cold or refrigerated storage units having a capacity of more than 10,000 MT and controlled atmosphere + cold storage having a capacity of more than 1,000 MT.
• Wholesalers having a turnover of more 30 crores per annum.
• Retailers, distributors, suppliers and caterers having an annual turnover of more than Rs.20
• Hotels that have a five-star rating and
• Restaurants having a turnover of more than 20 crores per annum.
• Transporters having more than 100 vehicles or turnover of more than 30 crores per annum.
• Marketers having turnover of more than 20 crores per annum.
• Storage or Wholesalers or Retailers or Distributors having premises in Central Government
• Food catering services in establishments and units under Central Government Agencies like Defence,
• Food catering services at seaport located at Kandla, Tuticorin, Vishakhapatnam, Kolkata, Marmagoa, Cochin, Mumbai, Chennai, JNPT and/or airport located at Kolkata, Trichy, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Amritsar, Cochin, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Trivandrum and

The applicability of Food registration and license is vast and varies from size and revenue of the business, it has to be carefully selected, such that any issues in the future are avoided. We will also release the content on the documents required for each type of Business, such that it gives a complete analysis and helps in decision making on the type of approval is required from the Authority

In case of any queries or assistance required in application of FSSAI License, please do reach out to Chhota CFO.