Govt Approves Regulatory Reforms in Food Safety Licensing
- 16 Mar 2026
On 13th March 2026, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare approved major regulatory and procedural reforms to improve ease of doing business in the food sector while maintaining strong food safety standards.
Key Points
- Perpetual Validity of Licences: Registrations and licences issued by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) will now have perpetual validity, eliminating the need for periodic renewals.
- Reduced Compliance Burden: The new system aims to reduce paperwork, compliance costs and repeated interactions between food business operators and licensing authorities.
- Focus on Monitoring: Regulatory agencies will be able to focus more on monitoring, enforcement and capacity-building activities instead of routine licence renewals.
- Revised Turnover Threshold: From 1 April 2026, food businesses with an annual turnover of up to ₹1.5 crore will require only basic registration, replacing the earlier threshold of ₹12 lakh.
- Licensing Categories: Businesses with turnover up to ₹50 crore will fall under state licensing, while those with turnover above ₹50 crore will require central licensing.
- Support for Small Businesses: The reforms simplify compliance for micro and small food businesses by reducing paperwork, fees and pre-inspection requirements.
- Strengthened Role of States: State authorities will have a stronger role in regulating and supervising food safety within their jurisdictions.
- Relief for Street Food Vendors: Street vendors already registered with municipal corporations or town vending committees under the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 will be treated as automatically registered with FSSAI.
- Benefit to Vendors: The measure is expected to benefit more than 10 lakh street food vendors by removing the need for multiple registrations.
