Advance submission of documents for NOC from FSSAI

All Custom Brokers, Importers, Members of the Trade and other stake holders has requested for procedure for "submission of necessary documents in advance" for obtaining NOC from FSSAI.

The FSSAI Authorities have been consulted in this regard and they have informed the presently followed Foods Import Clearance System (FICS) by them as below:-

SN.	Step	Basic Prerequisite	Remarks
1	Filing of BOE with ICES (Customs) by Applicant	Proper CTH code and end use dropdown be selected in EDI	NA
2	If applicable, filing of application to FSSAI	Advance B/E should be filed and routed to FSSAI for necessary NOC	Berthing of vessel or IGM details are not required
3	Scrutiny of application by FSSAI	Necessary documents along with agency specific documents (e.g. COO, end use declaration, certificate of analysis from supplier, etc.) needs to be furnished including specimen copy of label, ingredient list and FSSAI Import license.	Berthing of vessel or IGM details are not required
4	Payment of inspection and analysis charges by applicant	Applicant should pay such charges online or through Demand Draft	Berthing of vessel or IGM details are not required
5	Scheduling appointment for inspection	Appointment should be acknowledged by applicant and importer's representative or Custom Broker should be present in the CFS where samples needs to be drawn at the time fixed for sampling.	Consignment should be readily available in CFS
6	Forwarding Samples to Laboratory for Analysis	Article should meet labelling requirements and no visible spoilage and infestation should be observed. (basic requirement for the imported goods)	If non-conforming, article is rejected
7	Food analysis by laboratory	Sample should be fit for analysis (FSSAI officers to ensure) and meet the specifications	If not, then article is rejected.
8	Grant of NOC by FSSAI	Article should be conforming to the FSSAI requirements and IGM details should be duly furnished in application	If non-conforming, rejection certificate is issued.

Thus, on going through the above procedure, it is felt that option of advance filing of application for scrutiny is already operational for all applicants including 'Out of Scope' articles and applicants can update IGM details at any stage as listed above. It has been further clarified by FSSAI that Entry inward or IGM details are not required at stage of filing of application to FSSAI or scrutiny or documents inspection or during sampling and analysis. IGM details are required only to generate NOC/NCC certificate after analysis since it is part of NOC certificate format.