Who inspects, and how often
Inspections are carried out by the food safety authorities for your area, and the Designated Officer is the one who can serve an improvement notice. Regulation 2.1.17, inserted by the March 2026 amendment, makes frequency risk-based: it depends on the type of business, your past compliance, third-party audit results and the risk category of the food you handle.
FSSAI's order of 2 May 2022 sets an expectation, not a promise:
- High-risk manufacturers: yearly.
- Other manufacturers, food service, cold storage and refrigerated transport: every two years.
- Registered premises: at least once a year (regulation 2.1.1(6)).
A licensing authority may also inspect before it grants a licence.
FSSAI's sector checklists
FSSAI publishes an inspection checklist for each sector. The ones we work from include:
- General manufacturing
- Milk processing
- Meat processing, and slaughter houses (meat and poultry)
- Catering
- Retail
- Storage
- Transport
- Sanitary and hygiene requirements for petty businesses and food vendors on Registration
Each question is marked C (complies), NC (non-compliance), PC (partial compliance) or NA. The requirements behind the questions come from Schedule 4 of the Licensing Regulations: Part I for registered businesses, Part II for licensed ones, Part III for milk and Part IV for slaughter houses and meat. Download the checklists from fssai.gov.in rather than copies on other sites.
What an officer looks at
- Premises and water. Clean, pest-proof, in good repair. Water used in food tested regularly; FSSAI's guidance says every six months.
- Pest control. A working system, with records.
- People. Clean clothing, hand-washing, a medical fitness certificate for each food handler every year (Schedule 4, Part II 10.1.2), and one FoSTaC-trained supervisor per 25 handlers. See FoSTaC training.
- Process. Raw material receipt, storage temperatures, cross-contamination controls.
- Display. The Food Safety Display Board with your licence number.
- Product. Labels, and test reports at least every six months for licensed manufacturers (licence condition 12).
The document folder
For manufacturers, FSSAI's circular "Documents to be scrutinized while inspection" lists twenty items. They include the licence, laboratory reports, water analysis, medical certificates, pest control and calibration records, receipt, production and dispatch records, complaints and recall records, audit records, stock rotation, FoSTaC certificates, packaging certificates and label specimens.
Some of these expire. Lab reports run on a six-month clock, medicals on twelve. An out-of-date document counts as missing. Keep records for one year or the product's shelf life, whichever is longer (Schedule 4, Part II 8.2). See record keeping.
If something's wrong: the improvement notice
Under section 32 of the FSS Act, if the Designated Officer believes you've failed to comply, they can serve an improvement notice. It must state the grounds, the failures and the measures you must take, and give you a period of not less than 14 days to do it.
- Fail to comply and the licence may be suspended.
- Still fail, and it can be cancelled after you've had an opportunity to show cause.
- The officer can suspend a licence immediately in the interest of public health, recording reasons in writing.
You can appeal an improvement notice, or a suspension or cancellation, to the Commissioner of Food Safety. The Act allows 15 days, or less where the improvement notice's own period ends sooner, so act quickly. See notice response.
Inspection vs audit
An inspection is the regulator's visit. An audit is done by an FSSAI-recognised third-party auditor. Central-licensed manufacturers in high-risk categories (dairy, meat, fish, eggs, special nutritional foods, prepared foods, fortified rice kernels and packaged drinking water) need one every year. Since 2026, the Commissioner or the Authority can also direct any business to get one at its own cost (regulation 2.1.17(5)). Good audit results count in your risk rating. See third-party audit.
How to prepare
- Get the checklist for your sector and score yourself honestly, question by question.
- Fix every NC first, then the PCs.
- Build the document folder and check every date in it.
- Check your trained supervisors and medicals against today's headcount.
- Put the display board up and make sure staff know where the folder is.
Our mock inspection runs FSSAI's own checklist on your premises, with the requirement behind each question, before an officer does.