Odisha govt launches online registration and licensing system for FBOs

The Odisha government has launched the online registration and licensing system for Food Business Operators (FBOs).
According to a PTI report: Inaugurating the facility, Health and Family Welfare minister Pradip Kumar Amat said the online food licensing and registration system (FLRS) enables the FBOs to apply for license or registration by paying appropriate fees, uploading supporting documents, track the status of their applications on license or registration status, schedule inspections and receive alerts on the status and renewals.
This will not only make the process easy and simpler for the FBOs, but also enable better monitoring, increase the work efficiency of Food Safety Officers and also bring transparency in the system, Amat said.
In Odisha, already 19,162 FBOs have been registered and 10,973 licenses have been issued from 2012-13 to 2015-16, under manual process of registration and licensing.
In order to facilitate registration and licensing, Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) with assistance of National Institute for Smart Government (NISG), Hyderabad, has created a centralized online system to be used across the country.
All Food Safety Officers in Odisha have been trained in FLRS and have been provided with a computer system and internet facility to start the online registration and licensing of FBOs.
All the Food business Operators could log on to the website: http://foodlicensing.fssai.gov.in. for licensing or registration. They could also go to www.fssai.gov.in and logon to FLRS link provided in the site, Amat said.
This initiative will encourage Food Business Operators to obtain food license and registration digitally and bring more and more FBOs under the fold of the food safety setup, the minister said.
The Government of India enacted Food Safety and Standards Act, (FSS Act, 2006) to regulate and monitor the manufacturing, transportation, storage, distribution, sell and import of any food or food ingredient, so as to ensure availability of safe and wholesome food for human consumption and also to lay down science based standards.
FSS Regulations Gazette Notification on August 05, 2011, mandates that every Food Business Operator (FBO) must obtain License/ Registration Certificate.