Food biz traders evade registration

Aparna Banerji

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, April 8

A few food business operators (FBOs) have come up to get themselves registered with the district Health Department. Of over 9,000 FOBs, only around 1,500 have been registered in the past three years.

Till 2014, a total of 8,000 FOBs were manually registered with the department and about 2,000 had the licence. With the online registration facility in 2015, the number had seen a dramatic dip. From 2015 to till date, only 667 licences have been issued.

Over 6,000 FOBs in the district operate in the grey area. There is no check on the food and eatables they are serving to the people as they are not registered with the Health Department.

As many as 662 food selling entrepreneurs were registered in 2015 while in 2016, their number was 258 and 621 were registered in 2017.

Meanwhile, the number of establishments getting the licence from the department has seen a sharp increase in the past three years. In 2015, 62 received licence while in 2016, the number was 226 and 379 establishments got the licence in 2017.

To date, the year-wise data shows that the number of food entrepreneurs registered with the Health Department has seen a dip as compared to 2015. But as compared to 2016, an increase was witnessed. Meanwhile, the number of food selling establishments getting licence has seen a substantial rise over the years.

The punishment for not getting licence from the Health Department under Section 61 of the Act is either 6 months imprisonment or a fine of Rs 15 lakh. Most of the entrepreneurs have not got themselves registered with the department. Ironically, the department has also not taken any action against these unregistered entrepreneurs.

District Health Officer Dr Balwinder Singh said, “Every Friday, we convene a meeting to spread awareness among entrepreneurs to get licence, but the final call is theirs. After the online registration facility came into existence, there has been a sharp dip in registrations. The department is working hard to fix the gap. While they have to submit a hard copy of the online registration and licence as soon as they procure them online, many of the entrepreneurs are also not submitting these, causing a delay in the process.”

Regulations for applying licence

The food business operators are registered or get licence as per the regulations of the Food Safety Act, 2006. Entrepreneurs in the district have clearly been shying away from getting registered with the Health Department, which is also failing to initiate any action against them.

Following the implementation of the Food Safety Standards Act, 2006, it has become mandatory for the Health Department to register all establishments selling food. Under the provisions of the regulations, the cottage food manufacturing industry, with an annual turnover not exceeding Rs 12 lakh, will have to be registered with the Health Department, while the big food manufacturing having an annual turnover between Rs 12 lakh and Rs 12 crore must obtain the licence from the department.

The registration fee is Rs 100 while the licence seekers have to pay Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 as per the provisions.