Authorised Officers at 157 Points of Entries (poEs) for Food under Regulation 13(1) of FSSAI Notified

Subject: – Notification of 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 12.02.2020 regarding testing of imported food products at FSSAI notified laboratories. In this regard,FSSAI has provided updated list of PoEs for import of food (Annexure-1)

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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 12.02.2020, is modified to that extent.

6. The difficulties, if any, may be brought to the notice of the Board.

F.No. 401/103/2021-Cus-Ill