Food Safety and Standards (Licensing and registration of Food Businesses), Regulations 2011, prescribe implementation of hygiene and sanitary conditions as a pre requisite to both registration and licensing of FBOs.
In keeping with the intent of FSSAI for promoting food safety by FBOs, Quality Council of India with multi-stakeholder participation has developed a IndiaGHP Certification Scheme, for enabling third party verification of compliance by FBOs through a voluntary certification initiative.
The IndiaGHP Certification Scheme is based on international best practices and global standards to ensure internationally acceptable certification.This Certification 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 IndiaGHP in their operations and take certification from certification bodies approved under this scheme.
For details, refer to the following documents:
IndiaGHP Certification Criteria - The standard for certification , which have been developed following the Code of Good Practice enshrined in the WTO TBT
IndiaGHP Certification Process - Initial evaluation, frequency of surveillance, requirements for evaluators etc
IndiaGHP Requirements for certification bodies
IndiaGHP Provisional approval of certification bodies