Beverage News
A Wave-Creating Amendment from FSSA
A major, wave-creating amendment from FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) has made the news this October. Up until now, no uniform standards for training food businesses existed.
Come 2017 and plans to make a reform began to take shape. Food Safety Training and Certification (FoSTaC) programme started to come into existence. FSSAI initially launched the TOT – Train the Trainer Programme which included FSSAI officials training the Trainers of different Food Safety Training Organisations in the different courses. These FoSTaC training partners now are certified to conduct these trainings PAN-India.
Come August 2017 and the first round of Food Safety Supervisor (FSS) Training began across the nation.
The latest amendment is a document from FSSAI which talks about the initiative, the kind of trainings and the number of certified partner compliance agencies for the same. According to the initiative,
- Food businesses having central / state licences should have at least one trained & certified FSS for every 25 food handlers or part thereof at all their premises.
- These supervisors should in turn carry out onsite trainings of those food handlers, at least quarterly and maintain the records of the audits and inspections.
- Food handlers in every food business that is registered should be trained and certified.
Mr. Ashwin Bhadri, CEO – Equinox Consulting (Certified FoSTaC Training Partner) says that people always spoke to him about this. “My interaction about compliance always ended with Food Handlers requiring a standard training programme. Compliance with Food Law will see an all-new high post this implementation.”
The FoSTaC Programme
3 Levels are introduced for each kind of training pieces based on the level of difficulties, the time duration of the course and the targeted audience.
- Level 1 (Basic) – 5 courses of 4 to 6 hours duration over 1 to 2 days [Street Food Vending, Catering, Manufacturing/Processing, Storage & Transport, Retail & Distribution]
- Level 2 (Advanced) – 4 courses of 8 hours duration over 1 to 2 days [Catering, Manufacturing/Processing, Storage & Transport, Retail & Distribution]
- Level 3 (Special) – 6 courses of 4 hours duration on 1 day [Milk and Milk Products, Meat & Poultry, Fish & Sea Food, Packaged Water, Bakery and Edible Oil]
All the training content is prepared by FSSAI and is available in English, with translations in Hindi and other regional languages.
Equinox Consulting has conducted over 17 trainings PAN-India, training over 350 food handlers across multiple states. As India’s leading Compliance Consultancy, the company focuses on providing trainings, both in-house and on-site.
FoSTaC Trainings will be made mandatory in phases over the next 2 years. Many new implementations will be in place over time to help in the smooth transition of the amendment.
Source: Equinox Labs
