Fssai Issues Guidelines for Food Imports.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (Fssai) has taken over Port Health Organisation (PHO) functions at Mumbai and Nhava Sheva ports with effect from September 13, 2010, and Haldia (Kolkata) and Chennai ports earlier this month with the stipulation that the existing rules and procedures will continue to be followed without any change till Fssai regulations are notified.

The authority said that this was necessary because the directorate general of health services (DGHS) has already directed the PHOs to stop the work of drawing samples of imported food items at the ports due to the establishment of Fssai, creating a vacuum at some ports, though at some other ports PHO continued to do that work on informal basis.

"Such a situation could not be allowed to continue in the interest of ensuring safety of imported food in public interest. Accordingly, Fssai has moved and replaced PHOs with its own AOs (AOs) at the above mentioned ports in terms of section 47(5) of the FSS Act, 2006," it informed.

The work of AOs at four ports, namely Chennai Sea Port, Haldia Sea Port, Kolkata Sea Port and Mumbai Sea Port, is carrying on smoothly. "Only in the case of JNPT, Nhava Sheva, representations have been received with regard to some delays in the first week of the operations which is creating difficulties for some importers keeping in view the ensuing festive season and large number of consignments that are expected to be received at JNPT & Mumbai," Fssai added.

The Fssai has also announced following guidelines which will be compiled by the concerned AOs till further orders in this regard:

● The customs have been given the responsibility of switching to a system of 5%-20% checking of the consignments on random basis based on records of antecedents of the importers in respect of consignments of food items other than high risk food items and perishable items like fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, cheese etc. It may be noted that based on the past record of an importer which is available with the customs, the customs officer will take a decision and refer to Fssai's AO for drawing sample on 5-20% basis. Once a reference has been received the AO will proceed in accordance with the PFA rules, instructions and guidelines. For high risk items 100% sampling will be done as per DGFT's circular dated June 14, 2004.

● The AO will refer all the samples drawn to the authorised labs for analysis as per the provisions under the PFA Act and the testing charges Rs 3000 per sample as prescribed in the PFA rules will be borne by the importer.

● The AOs should ascertain that for the imported pre-packaged food items, the language and other major requirements of the label like mention of best before date, nutrition information etc. should comply the labelling provisions under PFA rules, failing which sample may not be drawn from such consignment for testing.

● As per DGFT notification No. 22 (RE-2001)71997-2002, dated July 30, 2001, import of all such edible/food products, domestic sale and manufacture of which are governed by PFA Act, 1954, shall also be subject to the condition that at the time of importation, the products are having a valid shelf life of not less than 60% of its original shelf life. Shelf life of the product is to be calculated, based on the declaration given on the label of the product, regarding its date of manufacture and the due date for expiry. In case of such products having less than 60% of their original shelf life, Fssai's AO need not draw any sample.

Source : fnbnews.com