Noida, May 30 (PTI) The Gautam Buddh Nagar administration has embarked on a drive to encourage food vendors, including those selling snacks on carts and street-side joints, to register themselves under the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India, officials said.

The initiative is aimed at bringing vendors under the FSSAI cover to ensure better food quality in terms of safety and hygiene of products in the district and revive confidence of people towards them, which appeared to have dipped during the COVID-19 pandemic, the food safety officials said.

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There are three categories for the registrations under FSSAI for businesses engaged in sales, manufacture or export of food products.

The first category is for businesses having an annual turnover of Rs 20 crore or more and they are issued the licence centrally, Assistant Commissioner Food Sanjay Sharma said.

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The second category includes businesses that have an annual turnover between Rs 12 lakh and Rs 20 crore. The third category has businesses that have a turnover less than Rs 12 lakh a year.

Both the second and the third category businesses are issued licence by the state government, Sharma said.

“Across Noida and Greater Noida in Gautam Buddh Nagar, there are 256 food vendors in the first category, 3,932 in the second category and 18,248 in the third category, including quick service restaurants, dhabas, food joints, kiosks and carts,” the officer said.

Chief Food Safety Officer Akshay Goel said, “The department has started a drive to encourage more food vendors, including those selling snacks on carts and street-side joints, to register themselves under the FSSAI.”

The registration helps the government agencies monitor the working of the vendor and keep a check on their food quality, the official said.

“The initiative is aimed at bringing vendors under the FSSAI cover to ensure better food quality in terms of safety and hygiene of products in the district and revive confidence of people towards them which appeared to have dipped during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Goel told PTI.

According to officials, vendors can register themselves through the FSSAI's website for Food Safety Compliance System (FoSCoS) at "http://www.foscos.fssai.gov.in"www.foscos.fssai.gov.in against an online payment of the fee.

The annual fee is Rs 100 for small vendors, Rs 3000-Rs 5000 for middle category and Rs 7,500 for the category of sellers and manufactures with a turnover of Rs 20 crore per year, the officials said.

“The registrations are done on an annual basis automatically. The vendors who do not get themselves at the end of their annual day, get de-registered automatically,”

According to the department, the number of registrations of food-related vendors in the district had dropped by up to 10 per cent in the wake of the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic, with several small-scale carts and kiosks shutting down.

“The number of registrations has picked up pace once again as the effect of the pandemic is waning down,” Sanjay Sharma said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)