Report

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has directed licensed food producers, importers, and relabelers to submit quarterly reports on rejected and expired food products through its online compliance platform, FOSCOS. This directive aims to prevent the resale of unfit food products for human consumption.

Key Mandates

Released on December 16, the mandate requires businesses to report:

• The quantity of products failing internal quality checks or inspections.
• The volume of expired or returned items from the food supply chain.
• Detailed records of product disposal, specifying whether items were destroyed, auctioned, or repurposed, including details of the buyer and waste disposal agency.

FSSAI’s initiative seeks to prevent the rebranding and resale of expired or discarded food products as human food, often disguised as animal feed. The regulatory body highlighted that real-time monitoring through FOSCOS will ensure proper disposal or auction of such items, limiting their misuse. Although the FOSCOS reporting feature is still under development, FSSAI has urged food businesses to begin compiling the required data to facilitate seamless reporting once the system is live.

Source: The Telegraph