Food importers allege lack of action on new guidelines

New guidelines take into account some key concerns of food importers on single-window clearance & random sampling of products

The Forum of Indian Food Importers (Fifi) has rapped the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) on implementation of the import guidelines issued by the latter 10 days earlier.

The new guidelines take into account some key concerns of food importers on single-window clearance and random sampling of products. However, the importers forum, consisting of almost 5,000 companies, says implementation is yet to happen on the ground.

The guidelines were overhauled after widespread criticism last year that products were being held up at ports for extended periods due to archaic processes, resulting in delays of months. The country imports about $3 billion of packaged food products a year.

FSSAI subsequently issued new draft guidelines in April and operationalised these earlier in this month. 

Amit Lohani, convenor of Fifi, says documents uploaded under the Pre-Arrival Document Scrutiny, the single-window clearance under the new guidelines, is resulting in further delays, since departments such as animal husbandry are also notified for clearance, in addition to FSSAI. "These are teething issues, which ideally should be resolved. Delays can be avoided if the principle of single-window clearance is followed on the ground," he says.

On random sampling of products, Lohani says the regulator has assured the body it will ensure on-ground implementation shortly. Under the old guidelines, 100 per cent sampling of consignments would be undertaken at ports, resulting in backlogs. The new guidelines have attempted to correct that, industry sources said.

FSSAI chief esecutive Pawan Kumar Agarwal said the changes were aimed at improving transparency and speed. "The guidelines do take into account what stakeholders have been saying. If there are issues, that is a matter of discussion," he said, without specifying timelines for implementation of the new norms.