FSSAI has officially notified the Food Safety and Standards (Recovery and Distribution of Surplus Foods) Regulations, 2019 in the Gazette of India.

In a statement here, the country’s apex food regulator stated, “With the aim of encouraging individuals and organisations to donate food for those in need, the Food Authority has come up with the Food Safety and Standards (Recovery and Distribution of Surplus Food) Regulations, 2019 so as to provide a legitimate backup to the food donation in India.”

The food regulator added that the purpose of these regulations was to establish a uniform national regulation to protect organisations and individuals when they donate food in good faith and to encourage the donation of food and grocery products to non-profit organisations for distribution to needy individuals. 

“Called the Food Safety and Standards (Recovery and Distribution of Surplus Food) Regulations, 2019, the food business operators (FBOs) shall comply with all the provisions of these regulations by July 1, 2020,” said the notification.

The regulations have two schedules. Schedule-I includes provisions for handling of surplus food by the FBOs and handling and distribution of surplus food by the surplus food distribution organisations and lays prescriptions for handling, collection and timely distribution of the surplus food.

The regulations stated, “Surplus food shall be distributed or served to the needy before the expiry of surplus food or until food is fit for human consumption, as the case may be, while food that is not fit for human consumption shall be put in a container clearly marked as Food for Disposal”.

It also prescribes that all employees or volunteers that work with distribution organisation and come in direct contact with food to undergo training for health, hygiene and food handling.  

Under Schedule II of these Regulations, the record of surplus food has to be maintained wherin 12 different kinds of information have to be collected and noted. These are as follows:
Name and address of the food donor organisation;
Name and address of surplus food distribution organisation;
Donation date;
Name of the food product (item);
Batch number of food product (item);
Date of manufacturing;
Best before date or expiry date;
Quantity donated by food donor;
Temperature of food;
Quantity distributed by surplus food distribution organisation;
Area wher food is distributed, and
Date of distribution