FoSCoS is abbreviated form of Food Safety Compliance System has been operational in nine States/UTs viz. Manipur, Puducherry, Ladakh, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Gujarat, Odisha, Chandigarh, Goa w.e.f. 1st June 2020. Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is now ready to extend FoSCoS to entire country w.e.f. 1st November 2020.
Since 2011, the FSSAI’s online licensing platform known as FLRS (Food Licensing and Registration System) is the main source of the licensing ecosystem with entire India (all State & UTs) coverage, Till date 70 lacs licenses or registrations, over 40 lacs licensees or registrants actively transacting on it.
FSSAI has launched their cloud based, upgraded new food safety compliance online platform called Food Safety Compliance System (FoSCoS) You can access the website via URL – (https://foscos.fssai.gov.in).
FoSCoS is a cloud-based online platform, work as the umbrella system, which is integrated with FSSAI’s other existing IT platforms to endow a one-stop center for all engagement of FBO( Food Business Operator) for any regulatory compliance transaction. FoSCoS has been launched on 1st June 2020 across 9 states/UTs to check the ability for FoSCoS and to purge any shortcomings.
We can say that FoSCoS is an enhanced version of Food Licensing and Registration System (FLRS). Registration on the old FSSAI website via FLRS was outdated and contains no technical support. The users always complained about the slow speed of FLRS. So for improvement, expansion & innovation in the licensing system, FSSAI launched cloud-based FoSCoS.
At Present the FBOs having License or Registration of premises at Indian Railways & their concerned authorities will continue to operate at Food Licensing and Registration System till FSSAI makes any further announcement regarding this. The Food Business Operators (pan-India) will also continue to receive consumer grievances, and they will respond to these grievances in a time bounded manner at FLRS till the FoSCoS is developed with the upgraded version of the Consumer Grievance Module.
FoSCoS is ready to provide one stop solution for all engagement of an FBO with the department for any regulatory compliance transaction. FoSCoS has integrated with FoSCoRIS mobile app & will soon integrate with present IT platforms of like INFOLNet, FoSTaC, FICS and many more.
These features and modules will be added in future:-
- Sample Management
- Improvement Notices
- Adjudications
- Audit Management System
Technologies like GPS location tagging, picture capture and many more will be utilized too in future to ensure transparent & accountable extension field services such inspections & sampling.
In future the current platform will be integrated with other platforms of Government of India like GST, PAN, MCA etc. to ensure a 360 degree profiling & validation of businesses. A single regulatory platform will enable PAN India integrated response system to ensure advanced risk based and data driven regulatory perspective to any food fraud.
FoSCoS is offering registration, licensing, inspection & annual return modules. It mandatorily has flows similar to FLRS, so that users have convenience in migrating to FoSCoS.
What are the Objectives of FoSCoS?
- To transform from the Food Licensing and Registration System which is only a licensing platform to a central food safety compliance regulatory platform.
- To build a technically advanced integrated application for achieving interoperability with other applications, capable of higher user traffic and potential for future upgrades and functionalities.
- To enhance the user performance of the application and make the application process effective and simple to promote ease of doing business amongst the FBOs.
- To provide less physical documentation & to streamline business procedure flows for FBOs for online application.
- To enable the application to seed business-specific details such as CIN Number, PAN Number. and GST Number. to assure 360 degrees profiling & validation of FBOs. FoSCoS will also be integrated with the Government of India platforms of GST, PAN, and MCA etc. for this purpose.
What are the Features Of FoSCoS?
- FoSCoS is made using the latest technology with an aim to have modern on stop pan-India IT platform for food safety regulatory needs. As an this platform is integrated with the old FSSAI website’s existing IT platform like FoSCoRIS( Food Safety Compliance through Regular Inspection and Sampling) to ensure seamless operations.
- It is also designed to integrate with Food Safety Connect-Complaints Management System, FICS (Food Import Clearing System), InFoLNet (Indian Food Laboratory Network, AMS (Audit Management System), adjudications & penalties, FoSTaC (Food Safety Training and Certification), FSM ( Food Safety Mitra) and so on. In future, these integrations will be took part step by step until FoSCoS evolves from a licensing platform to a unified compliance platform.
- FoSCoS has a stereo architecture able to do future extensions & enhancements.
- When an individual was applying for a licence online in the old FSSAI website via FLRS, the manufacturer applicant has to type the name of the food product he/she want to manufacture in the text box provided on the website. But in the FoSCoS website, this feature has been changed. Manufacturers will have to select the standardized food product only, out of the list provided on the website. The standardized product will have their classification according to the food category system indicated for convenience.
- If individual’s food product does not fall under the list of the standardized products, the manufacturing FBO will apply under the category of Proprietary Food, Non-specified Food or Supplements/Nutraceuticals as the case may be. In these cases, the text box approach from the old FSSAI website will continue. But, this modified feature is only for manufacturers which include re-packer & re-labeller of the food products.
- In future, FoSCoS will have a new online feature for filing annual returns through FoSCoS application. FBOs will have access to inspection reports. There will be a rationalization of the required documents KoB wise, in the FLRS system an individual required a complete set of29 documents. Many document-based declarations are revised to an online checkbox declaration. There is a clear segregation of KoBs in FoSCoS applications, for example nutraceuticals & novel food categories have been added as a separate category of business which comes under manufacturing.