CBIC instruction for Authorised Officers w.r.t. import of food under FSS Act 2006

The CBIC issued Instruction No. 2/2022-Customs dated February 2, 2022 for Authorised Officers under Section 25 read with Section 47 (5) of Food Safety Standards (FSS) Act, 2006 and Regulation 13 (1) of FSS (Import) Regulation, 2017.

Reference is invited to Instruction No. 1/2020-Customs dated February 12, 2020 regarding testing of imported food products at FSSAI notified laboratories. In this regard, FSSAI has provided an updated list of PoEs for the import of food (Annexure-1)

It is stated that FSSAI has notified Authorised officers at 157 Points of Entries (PoEs) for food, wherein 104 PoEs are to be manned by Customs officials as Authorized officers (AOs) while 53 PoEs are manned by FSSAI officials.

Further, FSSAI has provided a list of Food Testing Laboratories (Annexure-II). The testing of samples of imported food is to be carried out in FSSAI notified labs only with valid NABL accreditation. Customs officials notified as Authorised Officers at 104 PoEs shall ensure that only these FSSAI notified labs are being utilised for analysis of samples of imported food items.

It is requested that necessary action may be taken to sensitize officers under your jurisdiction regarding the said matter. The above instruction No. 1/2020-Customs dated February 12, 2020, is modified to that extent.

The Instruction along with Annexures can be accessed at - https://www.cbic.gov.in/resources//htdocs-cbec/customs/cs-instructions/cs-instructions-2022/cs-ins-02-2022.pdf