In today’s fast-paced life, health is sometimes neglected. People don’t pay a lot of attention to their day to day consumption. But to protect people’s mental and physical health and public safety in general, the government has enacted an act specifically for the maintenance of food safety and standards, namely, the Food Safety and Standards Act, in 2006. The act established a regulatory body for ensuring that such standards are maintained. A Food Safety Display Board consists of preliminary information on all the food safety and hygiene guidelines maintained by street vendors.

Basics of a Food Safety display board by street food vendors

The FSSAI act has introduced Food Safety Display Board rules for various businesses pan India. Every street food vendor mandatorily requires an FSSAI license. There are three types of licenses given by FSSAI :

• Basic FSSAI license
•  State FSSAI license
•  Central FSSAI license

FSSAI Registration Process

Food businesses get a particular type of license according to their turnovers and other eligibility criteria. There are some basic steps for the registration of a food business under FSSAI. Following are the stages of registration under FSSAI : 

Step1: Apply for registration 

Step 2: Obtain a unique application reference number.

Step 3: The registrar investigates the application. Based on the investigation, the registering authority accepts or rejects the application and records reasons for it.

Step 4: After investigation, a notice of inspection is given to the Food Business operators

Step 5: The inspection takes place by the registering authority.

Step 6: If no flaws are found upon inspection, the license is issued, and the business is free to operate within India.

After successful registration, a 14 digit FSSAI number to the registered business owner. Earlier, the display of that unique registration number was required. However, the street food vendors must follow some rules apart from the mandatory display of registration numbers.

Color Code for Different Food Business Operations

Different color codes are provided for different Food Business Operations, which are used as a symbol for easy recognition of their business. Following are the color codes given to different food businesses :

• Navy Blue – Transportation units
• Grey- Retail Stores
• Red- Meat Retail business
• Green- Vegetable and Fruits Retailer
• Yellow- Storing Units
• Brown – Liquor
• Turquoise- Manufacturing units
• Blue- Dairy and Milk Units 
• Purple- Restaurants and Street Food 

Essentials of A Food Safety Display Board

There are mainly three essential things required in a Food safety Display Board. They are as follows:

1. FSSAI Registration Number: A 14 digit unique number is given to every food business upon registration. It is an FSSAI registration number. All the display boards must have the FSSAI registration number of their business. Moreover, whether such a license is a State or basic or Central FSSAI license, easily verifiable on the FSSAI official portal should be mentioned. Further, the correct spelling of the business name should be displayed on the Food safety display board.

2. Safety and hygiene measures taken by businesses: All businesses are required to display the measures taken by them to ensure proper sanitation and safety regarding food to give a clear picture to the consumers about it. 

3. Feedback Number: A Food Safety Display Board shall consist of a valid feedback system for customers. There can be various options such as a valid contact number or a mail id for time to time criticisms or suggestions.

Explicit rules for Food Safety Display Board for Street Food vendors

Following are some important rules to be followed while displaying the Food Safety Display Board :

1. The rules shall be displayed on an A4 size sheet if it is an FSSAI registered business. In the case of a food business with an FSSAI license, the rules are to be displayed on an A3 size sheet.

2. If the food business is large, more than one food safety board is to be displayed.

3. The content of the display board should be visible to the customers.

4. The food safety display board should be of good quality, i.e. it should not get damaged easily.

5. In case the display board gets damaged, the board must be replaced or repaired immediately.

6.  The FSSAI license number shall be adequately displayed on the food safety display board with the correct name of the business.

7. The Food Safety Display Board must specify the type of business. Such types can be recognized by various color codes provided to different categories of food businesses.

The format of a Food Safety Display Board

Following are the details as to how a Food Safety Display Board should look like:

• The 14 digit FSSAI registration number is displayed on the top of the board.

• On the top left of the display board, the color code given to that particular business ( in this case, Street food vendors) is to be displayed. 

• Then the hygiene and safety rules are displayed, which are followed by such businesses.

• At the bottom of the display board, a contact number ( generally in the case of a street food vendor) is given for customer’s feedback.

Online delivery by street vendors

Since 2020, people have been stuck in their homes, and they avoid going out unnecessarily. In such cases, small businesses like street food vendors have started the system of food delivery. With the change in the service system, the FSSAI has either implemented or will be implementing some rules for ensuring safe delivery of food to the customer such as ensuring the premises are sanitary, safe and possibly contactless delivery system, the food so packed not to be wrapped in plastic, instead of plastic usage of recyclable material is encouraged. 

Conclusion

The new measures and the already set rules can be very beneficial for stringent implementation of the hygiene and safety measures by FSSAI^[1]. But, most of the street food vendors come under the unorganized sector. Implementation of rules becomes harder in these cases. However, it is mandatory for all food business operations to obtain an FSSAI license and abide by the Food Safety Display board rules. As consumers, it is our responsibility to follow the rules set by FSSAI and point out the flaws.

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