Under the Food Safety and Standards (Licensing and registration of Food Businesses), Regulations 2011, while prescribing hygiene and sanitary conditions as a pre requisite to both registration and licensing of FBOs, it is also stated that the FBOs encouraged to go for implementation of HACCP. The regulations states:
“…These are the basic - compulsory requirements for ensuring safety of the food manufactured in any premise and FBOs shall continuously try to improve the sanitary and hygienic conditions at the premises with a goal of attaining India HACCP standards within a - previously determined period…”
Codex Alimentarius Commission has published CAC/RCP -1 1969 - Recommended Code of Practice - General Principles of Food Hygiene, describing the controls recognized internationally as essential for safety and suitability of food, while HACCP is recommended for ensuring enhanced food safety. The Codex General Practice of Food Hygiene (GPFH) is applicable across the food chain and is so written that each industry has to interpret and apply it.
Since the Codex GPFH and HACCP document is a guidance document and hence not amenable to auditing or certification, the Indian industry is having to resort to foreign HACCP based food safety standards for demonstrating compliance to HACCP like Dutch HACCP, SQF etc.
In keeping with the intent of FSSAI for promoting food safety by FBOs, Quality Council of India with multi-stakeholder participation has developed an IndiaHACCP Certification Scheme, for enabling third party verification of compliance by FBOs through a voluntary certification initiative.
The IndiaHACCP Certification Scheme is based on the international best practices and global standards to ensure internationally acceptable certification.This Scheme would not only help provide assurance that food is suitable for human consumption but also maintain confidence in internationally traded food. It would also provide Indian FBOs an alternative to foreign certifications and outgo of foreign exchange. Thus, FBOs are encouraged to implement IndiaHACCP in their operations and take certification from certification bodies approved under this scheme.
For details, refer to the following documents:
IndiaHACCP Certification Criteria - The standard for certification , which have been developed following the Code of Good Practice enshrined in the WTO TBT
IndiaHACCP Certification Process - Initial evaluation, frequency of surveillance, requirements for evaluators etc
IndiaHACCP Requirements for certification bodies
IndiaHACCP Provisional approval of certification bodies