Guidance Document for

Consumer Interfaces

Food Safety & Standard Authority of IndiaFDA Bhawan, Kotla Road

New Delhi – 110002Tel No – 11-23236975, www.fssai.gov.in

Contents – 1. Introduction2. Sensitization towards consumer grievances3. Need for an effective Consumer Grievance Redressal Mechanism4. Right To Consumer

a. FSSAI – Legal Provisions, Prohibition & Restriction On Salesb. Consumer Protection Act, 1986.

5. Citizen Connecta. Mailb. Whatsappc. Facebookd. Twitter e. Websitef. SMSg. Toll Free No.h. FSSAI App – Food Safety Connecti. Lettersj. Walk-in

6. Consumer Friendly Initiatives to redress consumer grievancesa. Food Safety Connect b. CUG Networkc. Helpline Extensiond. Local Circlese. GAMA Portalf. Smart Consumer Appg. CPGRAM Portal

7. Consumer Grievance Redressal Mechanisma. Consumer Cellb. Redressal Mechanismc. Time Period d. Benefits

8. Consumer Oriented FSSAI Initiativesa. DART – Detect Adulteration through Rapid Test b. Safe & Nutritious Food – Home, School, When Eating Out, Workplacec. Food Safety Display Boardsd. Water Portal

Annexures1. Feedback form for FBOs2. Important weblinks

Introduction

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has been established under Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 for laying down science based standards for articles of food and to regulate their manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import to ensure availability of safe and wholesome food for human consumption.

FSSAI has been making endeavours to ensure safe food to the citizens of the country and one of the effective ways is to redress grievances of citizens in a meaningful manner by effectively coordinating with different State FDA’s & Food Business Operators and trying to eliminate the causes of grievances, thus ensuring safe food to the citizens.

Redress of consumer grievances, being one of the most important initiatives, FSSAI formulates Consumer Grievance Redressal Mechanism for effective, timely and satisfactory redressal of consumer grievance.

Applicability

The consumer grievance redressal mechanism is applicable to all the consumers, consuming food and having grievance against them. The consumers can register their grievance to FSSAI through any medium of contact as described in the document. It is also applicable to all the Food Business Operators who are licensed or registered under FSSAI, across country, to satisfactorily redress the concern of the consumer in well-established time frame.

Objective

The objective of formulating the Consumer Grievance Redressal Mechanism is to –

1) To promptly address and resolve consumer grievances fairly and equitability.2) To provide enhanced level of customer satisfaction.3) To provide easy accessibility to the customer for an immediate grievance redressal. 4) To educate the customers about their right to safe food.5) To ensure that the customers are responded with courtesy & on time.6) To identify systemic flaws in the operational functions of the organization and

products suggesting corrective measures.

Grievance / Complaint

A “Grievance / Compliant” is defined as any communication that expresses dissatisfaction about an action or lack of action, about the standard of service/ deficiency of service of a company and/or any intermediary or asks for remedial action. A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction with a product or service, either orally or in writing, from a customer. A customer may have a genuine cause for complaint,

although some complaints may be made as a result of a misunderstanding or an unreasonable expectation of a product or service.

Sensitization towards consumer grievances

While occasional problems with service of merchandise are, to some extent, inevitable, dissatisfied customers are not. Companies can learn to recover from mistakes. A good recovery can turn angry, frustrated customers into loyal ones.

Grievances offer businesses an opportunity to correct immediate problems. In addition, they frequently provide constructive ideas for improving products, adapting marketing practices, upgrading services or modifying/upgrade technologies and practices and product information.

Recognizing the importance of responding fairly and efficiently to buyer disappointment in the marketplace, many businesses have established effective and innovative systems for resolving consumer complaints. Within any industry, those companies with a positive philosophy and a reputation for fair complaint-management have a competitive edge.

A management philosophy that embraces customer satisfaction as a primary goal of business, instead of defending the company in the face of complaints, can change the rules of the game for companies. It shifts the emphasis from the cost of pleasing a customer to the value of doing so, and trusts front-line employees to use their judgment.

Need To Address Consumer Grievances

Generate Loyalty, Goodwill and Word-of-Mouth

By talking back when they believe they have not received their money's worth, consumers give businesses an opportunity to correct the immediate problem and restore goodwill. Experience shows that consumers who complain about products and services continue to frequent the businesses and buy the products they complain about if they believe the complaint was resolved fairly.

Research into complaint behaviour reveals that only a fraction of dissatisfied consumers complains to business and, thereby, gives the company an opportunity to correct the problem. There is evidence that some consumers do not complain because they are sceptical about business's willingness or ability to resolve disputes fairly. Consumers simply withdraw their patronage and criticize the company or the product to others.

Such findings underscore the importance to business of consumer grievance redressal mechanism that is well-publicized and easily accessible. An unregistered complaint may do as much harm as one that is mismanaged or not resolved.

Careful complaint management can save business unwanted costs. For example, negative word-of-mouth publicity from dissatisfied consumers means lost revenue and necessitates additional investment in advertising to attract replacement customers.

Complaints and complaint trends tell business how to do its job better by alerting management to problems that need prompt attention and correction. Furthermore, they indicate long-range opportunities for product innovation and problem prevention.

Need for an effective Consumer Grievance Redressal Mechanism

Most managers responsible for food safety dread a customer complaint. Whether it is received directly from the consumer or from a retail customer, at best it represents in their minds, a failure of their food safety management system. In the worst case scenario, it can trigger a crisis management situation leading to a recall or withdrawal of product from the market. Complaints can be costly leading to a loss of business and customer confidence.

In many ways, customer complaints are one of the more obvious indications that improvement can be achieved and this responsibility usually falls to the food safety manager. At the same time, complaints are a fact of life for any food business. They are practically unavoidable. A food process, like any other process, experiences variation and other failures which can lead to complaints. As people producing food for consumption we should always maintain a reasonable level of discomfort regarding process variation and the resultant issues. This is the basis upon which we build a culture of dealing with complaints professionally.

Core to this is the complaints handling procedure and the supporting management practices that ensure we maintain complaints at acceptable levels, address critical complaints correctly, protect public health and embrace continuous improvement. The objective of any food safety management system is protection of the health of the consuming public. This is driven by the legal, commercial and moral obligations of the food business not to cause harm, injury or death to any individual who consumes its products. Food safety management is an effective tool in meeting these obligations. As is the cause with any management system the identification, collection and analysis of data is essential to allow decisions to be made and actions taken.

When it comes to the safe production of food any data which indicates a real or pending failure in control is enormously valuable. Customer complaints are one such data source that provides the management systems with high quality information necessary for effective control and to generate improvement in food safety programs.

Right to Consumer

1. FSSAI – Legal Provisions

The mandate of FSS Act, 2006 is to provide safe and wholesome food for the human consumption. Consumer are major stakeholder in the food chain, accordingly consumers are empowered under section 40 of FSS Act, 2006 and 2.4.4 of FSS Rules, 2011.

As per the Section 40 of FSS Act –

Purchaser may have food analysed.

(1) Nothing contained in this Act shall be held to prevent a purchaser of any article of food other than a Food Safety Officer from having such article analysed by the Food Analyst on payment of such fees and receiving from the Food Analyst a report of his analysis within such period as may be specified by regulations:

Provided that such purchaser shall inform the food business operator at the time of purchase of his intention to have such article so analysed:

Provided further that if the report of the Food Analyst shows that the article of food is not in compliance with the Act or the rules or regulations made thereunder, the purchaser shall be entitled to get refund of the fees paid by him under this section.

(2) In case the Food Analyst finds the sample in contravention of the provisions of this Act and rules and regulations made thereunder, the Food Analysts shall forward the report to the Designated Officer to follow the procedure laid down in section 42 for prosecution.

As per 2.4.4 of FSS Rules

Purchasers may have the food analysed

1. A Purchaser of food article may, if he so desires, have the article analysed by the Food Analyst according to the procedure notified by the Food Authority.

2. If the Purchaser desires to have the food article purchased by him to be analysed by the Food Analyst, he shall give a notice in writing, then and there, in Form V B of his intention to have it so analysed to the person from whom he has purchased the food article.

3. The provisions of Rule 2.4.1 shall mutatis mutandis apply except 2.4.1 (9) (i, iv) , 10 (ii, iii), 11, and 16 and with the modification that the samples shall be divided into two parts or two already sealed packages will be taken each of which will be marked and sealed or fastened up in such a manner as its nature permits and the signature or thumb impression of the person from whom the sample has been taken or a witness will be affixed on the label mentioned in 2.4.1 (8). The purchaser will forward one part of the sample to the Food Analyst and the other to the Designated Officer which can be used in the event of appeal by the Food Business Operator against the finding of the report of the Food Analyst.

4. The Purchaser shall pay the prescribed fee to the Food Analyst for carrying out the analysis.

5. The Food Analyst shall send to the Purchaser his report on analysis of the article of food and if the finding of the report is to the effect that the article of food is adulterated/misbranded/contaminated or does not conform to the standards prescribed under the Act or the Regulations, the Food Analyst shall also send his report in triplicate, to the Designated Officer of the area in which the article of food was purchased, besides sending a copy of the Report to the Purchaser.

6. The report of the Food Analyst shall be sent within 14 days of the receipt of the article of food for analysis and such report shall be in Form VII A.

The Chapter IX of FSS Act, 2006

It provides various Sections (49 to 59) for offences and penalties against adulterated, misbranded, substandard etc.

Details of Offences and Penalties under FSS,Act

Section OffencePersons covered

Imprisonment Fine (Rs.)Petty Manu

facturers

50

Food not of quality demanded by

purchaser;

Not in compliance with the Act

Seller- 2Lakhs

P

enalty<Rs.

25,000/-

51 Sub-standard food

Manufacturer, Seller, Storage,

Distributor, Importer

- 5 Lakhs -

52 Misbranded food -do-

- 3 Lakhs -

53

Misleading

advertisement: False description; or

Nature or quality or substance;

Publisher or any person involved in publishing

- 10 Lakhs -

54Food contains

extraneous matter

Manufacturer, Seller, Storage,

Distributor, Importer

- 1 Lakhs -

55Failure to comply with

FSO direction

Food business operator or

importer

- 2 Lakhs -

56

Unhygienic or unsanitary:

Processing; Or Manufacture

Manufacturer or processor

- 1 Lakhs -

57Possessing Food

adulterant

Manufacturer, Seller, Storage, Distributor,

Importer-

Injurious to health -10

Lakhs;Non- injurious

to health- 2 Lakhs

-

58Where no specific penalty provided

Any person contravening

- 2 Lakhs -

59 Unsafe foodManufacturer, Seller, Storage, Distributor,

Importer

No injury – 6 months

Non-grievous injury – 1 year;

Grievous – 6 years;

Death – 7 years to Life

imprisonment

1 Lakhs3 Lakhs5 Lakhs

10 Lakhs

-

60Interference with seized

itemsAny person 6 months 2 Lakhs -

61Supply of false

informationAny person so

directed3 months 2 Lakhs -

62

Obstruction or impersonation of FSO

without reasonable excuse

Any person 3 months 1 Lakhs -

63Carrying on business

without licenseAny person or Food business operator

6 months 5 Lakhs Exempt

64 Subsequent offencesAny person

contravening-

Twice the punishment with further

fine/ day

-

FSSAI – Prohibition & restriction on sales.

a. Unauthorized manufacture and sale of packaged drinking water –

FSSAI has requested the Food Safety Commissioners to undertake the State enforcement activities on unauthorized manufacture and sale of packaged drinking water without FSSAI/BIS Mark. As per Regulation 2.3.14 (17) & (18) of Food Safety & Standards (Prohibition & Restriction on sales) Regulations, 2011 “No person shall manufacture, sell or exhibit for sale, packaged drinking water and mineral water expect under the Bureau of Indian Standards Certification Mark”.

b. Sale of loose edible oil –

FSSAI has also requested the Food Safety Commissioner to undertake the state enforcement activities on sale of loose edible oils. As per Reulation 2.3.15 (1) of Food Safety & Standards (Prohibition & Restriction on sales) Regulations, 2011 “No person shall sell or expose for sale or distribute, or offer for sale, or dispatch, or deliver to any person for the purpose of sale any edible oil –

(a) Which does not conform to the standards of quality as provided in the Food Safety and Standard Act, 2006 (34 of 2006) and rules/regulations made thereunder; and

(b) Which is not packed in the container , marked & labelled in the manner as specified in FSSAI regulations.”

2. Consumer Protection Act, 1986

The Consumer Protection Act of 1986 gives the consumer basic rights:

1. Right to be protected against marketing of goods and services which are hazardous to life and property.

2. Right to be informed about the quality, quantity, standard and price of goods or services so as to protect the consumer against unfair trade practices.

3. Right to be assured, wherever possible, access to variety of goods and services at competitive prices.

4. Right to be heard and to be assured that consumers interests will receive due consideration at appropriate forums.

5. Right to seek redressal against unfair trade practices.6. Right to consumer education.

Citizen Connect

Citizen Connect is an initiative of FSSAI to develop a credible and robust information and feedback mechanism across various channels to create a responsive ecosystem to bring each citizen on-board to share their concerns regarding food safety violations.

This “CITIZEN CONNECT” initiative allows a consumer to share their concerns, know their rights and track Food Business Operators license/registration certificate authenticity.The main objective of this initiative is to ensure satisfactorily & timely redressal of concern and to create a robust ecosystem of ensuring food safety in the country.

FSSAI has provided accessibility to the citizens to raise their concern through following interfaces:

1. e-mail - compliance@fssai.gov.in2. Whatsapp - 98686868683. Facebook Page - FSSAI4. Twitter - @fssaiindia5. FSSAI concern web portal –Food Safety Connect

https://foodlicensing.fssai.gov.in/cmsweb/6. SMS- 98686868687. Toll- Free No. –18001121008. Application – Food Safety Connect (android)9. Letters – Regulatory Compliance Division, 4th Floor, FSSAI, FDA Bhawan, Kotla Road,

New Delhi – 110002.10. Walk-in - Regulatory Compliance Division, 4th Floor, FSSAI, FDA Bhawan, Kotla Road,

New Delhi – 110002.

Independent of the channel through which the concerns are raised, the agents at FSSAI back-end act as facilitators to qualitatively assess before logging in the concern into the web based system processing centre. This will help filter non-serious and frivolous concerns from reaching the concerned authorities and also educating the consumers on the mandate of FSSAI.

The concerns received through various channels are being processed by a team trained for the purpose that will qualitatively assess the nature of the concern and evaluate how best the concern could be addressed. Service Team Members act as the hub to receive process and serialise the concerns raised to respective State/UT Officials or Food Business Operators or FSSAI Officials as per the merits of the concerns. The team at FSSAI are well trained not only to receive the concerns from the consumers but also to guide them in case of misplaced expectations and better understanding of FSS Act, 2006, Rules and Regulations made thereunder.

Consumer Friendly Initiatives to redress consumer grievances–

a) Food Safety Connect

“Food Safety Connect” is a CONSUMER CENTRIC APP & an online portal by FSSAI that offers a centralised platform to the Indian consumers to raise concerns related to food safety and hygiene.Towards securing National Food Safety, FSSAI wishes to bring each citizen onboard to share their concerns regarding food safety violations. This portal allows a consumer to share their concernspertaining to food safety & hygiene in a pre packaged product and when you eat out at a restaurants, dhabbaetc, know their rights, track Food Business Operators license/registration certificate authenticity and view related articles/videos on food safety.

The FSSAI team, the State DOs/FSOs and the FBOs – all three stakeholders have online access to the grievances raised by consumers and recorded in a common online system.The food concerns that are filtered for completeness and genuineness are forwarded to concerned State or FBO nodal officer. FBO Nodal Officer is a Senior manager/ Nodal officer designated by FBO as Single Point of Contact (SPOC) for complaint handling on behalf of the FBO registered/licensed with FSSAI. The FBO Nodal Officer after accessing the complaint, send a corrective action report to FSSAI which is then shared with the consumer.

b) CUG Network –

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has taken as initiative to develop a Food Safety Network of India (FSNI) wherein all food regulatory authorities shall be operating in a Closed User Group(CUG) across the country.

This network will bring more coherence in the efforts of maintaining food safety standards in the country but shall also reduce the response time to the exigencies emerging out of food safety issues. It will empower the citizens in a big way to have direct access to the regulatory staff. This will bring more transparency and shall provide an effective mechanism for grievance redressal. These CUG numbers will be integrated with Food License & Registration System (FLRS), thereby all the alerts generated by FLRS shall be messaged on these CUG numbers. There will be dedicated Email ID along with the CUG number attached to the post/area of the regulatory staff as mapped in the FLRS system.

c) Helpline Extension

FSSAI is strengthening its consumer care cell by extending its helpline centre activities. FSSAI is currently operating a contact centre which is available through a toll-free number. This helpline will now be available round the day & it will be dedicated for addressing consumer grievances, Food Import Clearance System issues, Food Registration and Licensing system issues, queries on website& FSSAI initiatives sites etc. This helpline work force will register grievances on food related issues and attend to grievances submitted by consumers through app, website, whatsapp and other social media channels.

The work force will co-ordinate with internal and external stakeholder for closure on issues raised. This contact center will operate as first point of contact of FSSAI. All issues raised by various stakeholders will be registered and forward the same to corresponding division and track to closure. This ought to result in timely addressing and closure of consumer grievances.

d) LocalCircles

LocalCircles is India’s leading independent community engagement and social media platform for causes. It enables citizens to easily come together onlineand on ground for important citizen issues and share inputs with government at various levels for inclusive policy and drive constructive collection actionto make citizen life easier and better. FSSAI together with LocalCircles seeks an opportunity to empower the Indian Citizen to solve their issue with community supportand Government’s enablement via social media.

LocalCircles along with Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has enabled India’s largest online community on Food Safety i.e. “Safe & Nutritious Food”.Presently there are more than 42,000 members in the group, who actively engage with FSSAI and discuss their issues/grievances and FSSAI provides guidance/solutions to the issues.

e) GAMA Portal

Department of Consumer Affairs (DoCA) has launched a web based GAMA (Grievances against Misleading Advertisements) portal wherein Misleading advertisements related to Food and Beverages are being forwarded to FSSAI through this portal. Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has signed anMoU with Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI) on 28th June, 2016.ASCI will comprehensively monitor cases of misleading advertisements in the Food and Beverage sector (F&B) across various media.

ASCI has been given a suomoto monitoring mandate by FSSAI to process complaints against misleading F&B advertisements. MoU also requires ASCI to report to FSSAI non-compliance of ASCI’s decisions for further action as required per provisions of FSSAI Act.

FSSAI is also ascertaining Nutrient claims and Health Claims by drafting Food Safety and Standards (Advertisements and Marketing Claims of Food Products) Regulations, 2017 which is under consideration by Panel on Labelling and Claims.The draft includes a list of recommended Nutritional and Health Claims – Disease risk reduction.Guidelines for operations of claims approval and complaints redressal has been drafted and under consideration for expert’s comments by Panel on Labelling and Claims.The said regulation will be uploaded on website after approval from Food Authority and Ministry of Health & Family Welfare from comments from public and stakeholders.

f) Smart Consumer App

Department of Consumer Affairs, Govt. of India launched its “Smart Consumer App” mobile app on 24th Dec’16to educate & empower consumers to make better choices & furthering the vision of digital consumers and digital India. It enable consumers use their mobile phones to access information about products which is required to be provided by manufacturers/brand owners/importers under Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules 2011.

FSSAI intends to use the same ‘smart consumer’ mobile app to additionally capture information related to FSSAI licence numbers, whether any products are under recall and URL link to food product test certification. This information along with Dept. of Consumer Affairs requirements would need to be provided and linked for each of the food productsby the Food Business Operator with its corresponding GTIN(EAN/UPC code). It would get displayed on the mobile phone when the GTIN barcode on a consumer item is scanned using the ‘smart consumer’ mobile app.

“Smart Consumer App” powered by GS1 India, empowering a billion consumer to connect digitally with brands/ manufacturers. Through a simple scan of barcode, consumer can get complete product details such as product name, manufacturer details, month & year of manufacturer, MRP, Net Content & consumer care details on the mobile phone along with the option to directly register their complaints.

g) CPGRAM Portal

Central Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAM) is a Government of India portal aimed at providing the citizens with a platform for redress of their grievances. The Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances is the nodal agency to formulate policy guidelines for citizen-centric governance in the country. Redress of citizen’s grievances, being one of the most important initiative of the department, DAR&PG formulates public grievance redress mechanisms &effectively coordinate with different Ministries & Departments of the Government for effective and timely redress/settlement of citizens’ grievances.

To ensure that consumers get safe food, FSSAI has adopted CPGRAMS (Central Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System) for handling citizen complaints/ grievances. Citizen can use this system to raise grievances against FBOs. CPGRAMS is a standardized web based solution and an integrated application to register and to redress the grievances received online, by post and by hand. CPGRAMS is functional at the Nodal level, where grievances lodged by citizens are received by the Nodal officer and then forwarded electronically to the concerned officer for redress and appropriate action. The redress is monitored at the Nodal level, both for timelines and quality.

7. Consumer Grievance Redressal Mechanism

a) Grievance Handling Cell

Grievance handling cell at FSSAI comprises of the following -

S. No. Name Department Contact Details

1 Sh. Bimal Kumar Dubey Director, Regulatory Compliance Division, FSSAI

compliance@fssai.gov.in

2 Mr Prabhat Mishra Asst. Director, Regulatory Compliance Division, FSSAI

enforcement2@fssai.gov.in

3 Ms HiyaPandey Technical Officer, Regulatory Compliance Division, FSSAI

hiapandey33@gmail.com

4 Ms MeenakshiVerma Consultant, FSMS Division, FSSAI

meenakshi.fssai@gmail.com

5 Ms ShwetaChoudhary Consultant, IT Division, FSSAI

shweta.fssai@gmail.com

6. Ms.Ruchika Sharma Social Media Lead, IT Division, FSSAI

ruchika.fssai@gmail.com

b) Redressal Mechanism

The Grievance redressal mechanism of an organization is the gauge to measure its efficiency and effectiveness as it provides important feedback on the working of the organization. The main purpose of a Grievance Policy is to place an appropriate mechanism whereby the Customer who believe(s) that he/ she has been wronged by any act of the Company is afforded a fair opportunity to redress his/ her Grievance.

Providing prompt and efficient service is essential not only to attract new customers, but also to retain existing customers. Every organisation must evolve a system for redressal of grievance arising out of its work. Grievance redressal system should form an integral part of the machinery of any organisation. No organisation can claim to be accountable, responsive and user friendly unless it has established an efficient and effective grievance redressal system.

It bridges the communication gap between the service provider and the citizen or consumer, providing citizens a platform through which they can get their grievances redressed in a timely and transparent manner. A suitable mechanism must exist for receiving and redressing customer grievances. The grievances should be dealt with promptly and courteously. In order to make the redressal mechanism more meaningful and effective, a structured system has been put in place. Such system would ensure that the redressal sought is just, fair and within the given framework of rules and regulations.

Complaints represent one of the most important information sources for any food safety management system. They provide a food business with the opportunity to identify emerging or existing problems and take actions early to prevent a crisis.

Classification of Grievance/s

All consumer interactions will be broadly classified as Query, Request, Complaint or Feedback. All interactions will be further classified based on the nature of the interaction.

1. Query - Interactions where the person is seeking information is classified as a ‘Query’.

2. Request - Request for some information is classified as ‘Request’.3. Complaint–Statement when consumer is unsatisfactory or something is

unacceptable is classified as a ‘Complaint’.4. Feedback - Communication wherein person gives suggestion/s on improving

products and services is termed as ‘Feedback’.

Procedure to redress consumer grievances by FSSAI -

Consumers may lodge the complaints/greivance through various channels such as facebook, twitter, whatsapp, SMS, FSSAI App, letters, walkin, FSSAI website, Mail, toll free no. All the complaints received through various channels are feeded in online portal ie“Food Safety Connect” by FSSAI. Consumer can also directly lodge their complaint in this online portal. The complaints through GAMA Portal, CPGRAM Portal & Smart Consumer App are not feeded in the online portal.

The online portal i.e. “Food Safety Connect” is then scrutinized by Regulatory Compliance Division (RCD) for the authenticity and completion of the complaint. If grievance is found incomplete or doesn’t come under the purview of FSSAI, the same is informed to the consumer, giving suitable reason. Upon successful feeding of the complaint in the portal, a unique complaint no. is generated and shared with the consumer. Consumer can track the status of these complaints using this unique ID.

Based on the details of the complaints, the RCD then forward the complaint to the Designated Officer of the state. RCD may also directly forward the complaint to the nodal officer as appointed and informed by FBO to the FSSAI. The complaints through GAMA Portal, CPGRAM Portal & Smart Consumer App are directly forwarded to state DOs through DO Letter.

The DOs then forward the concern to the Food Safety Officer, who will then inspect the product/premise, collect evidence, send sample for testing and/orcontact nodal officer of the FBO for redressal of the grievance. FSO/Nodal Officer can contact the consumer in case some clarification or other information is needed. FBO’s upon receiving the complaint, are required to do root cause analysis (RCA) of the complaint, correction and take corrective and preventive actions (CAPA). Upon completing the procedure, Nodal officer is required to submit a CAPA report to the FSO.

The FSO will then review &submit the report to the DO, who will then inspect the report. The DO may forward the complaint to the Food Safety Commissioner or FSSAI for their intervention, if he seeks some more clarification. If DO is satisfied, he may send thereport to the FSSAI.

The FSSAI will then review the report for completion and if found satisfactory, may forward the same to the consumer and the complaint is then considered as redressed.

Procedure to redress consumer grievances by Nodal Officer of FBO –

Definition -

1. Non-conformity – Non fulfilment of a specified requirement.2. Root Cause Analysis (RCA)–A systematic process analysing potential causes of

failure to identify the true cause(s) of a particular undesirable event.3. Correction – Action to correct (or contain) a non conformity or other undesirable

situation.4. Corrective Action – Action to eliminate the cause of a detected non conformity or

other undesirable situation (prevent recurrence).5. Preventive Action - Action to eliminate the cause of a potential non conformity or

other undesirable situation (prevent occurrence).

1. Define complaints policy & procedure -

The first step in putting in place an effective grievance handling system is to clearly define your complaints policy and procedure. This should be documented and it should be consistent with legal and commercial requirements and sufficient to ensure consumer protection. The policy should describe the management’s comment to the customer and application of resources to support the complaints handling processes. The procedure should define in detail the steps to be followed in handling complaints and include complaint capturing, investigation, analysis, recording and reporting.

2. Complaint investigation & Corrective Action –

Grievance received

Undertake Root Cause Analysis and determine Root Cause.

Implement Correction.

Determine Corrective Action

Initiate CAR (Corrective Action Report)

Respondent(s) Provides Corrective Responses, Root Cause Verification and Implement Due Dates

Corrective Action Implementation begins Respondent(s) review similar systems for Preventive Action Opportunities

Respondent(s) sign-off when implementation is complete

Responding to the complainant

Monitoring & trending

CAR Closed

Investigation & Root Cause Analysis –

Following the proper capturing of the complaint information you should then commence a work flow designed to investigate the complaint and identify the root cause of the issue to ensure that resultant corrective actions are focused on preventing a recurrence. Root cause analysis attempts to distil the issue down to its actual cause. There are various tools and techniques that can be employed to conduct effective root cause analysis.

All complaints must be investigated in detail by competent personnel. The investigation must determine whether the complaint is product specific or an issue which may affect more than one product: Foreign Bodies, Alleged Illness, Taste, Quality, Correct Quantity, etc. Full records must be kept and the outcome of the investigation promptly reported to

relevant personnel and departments. All instances of foreign body contamination, alleged illness and trends need to be investigated. Isolated incidences where a customer doesn’t like the taste or there is a qualityissue may not require a full investigation; however, they do need to be monitored.There are 5 basic steps to complete an RCA –

1. Define the problem –

Try & use SMART principle i.e. Specific, Measurable, Action Oriented, Realistic & Time Constrained. Unless the problem is defined accurately, the RCA whole proce may be prone to failure.

2. Understand the problem –

Check the information, obtaining real data regarding the problem, gaining a clear understanding of the issue. This is when the various tools & techniques such as cause and effect can be used.

3. Immediate Action –

Implement temporary counter measures at the place of the problem. The further away from the problem source the solution is determined, the less likely that the solution will be effective.

4. Corrective Action –

Determine & prioritise the most probable underlying causes of the problem, as the temporary counter-measure may not resolve the root cause. Taking corrective action to at least mitigate or preferably eliminate the causes.

5. Confirm the solution

After the measures have been determined and implemented the success of the adopted approach needs to be established. Having confirmed the success of the suggested solution then rules or control methods need to be established that will avoid the problem ever happening again. This is probably the most important phase in the RCA, but the one most often missed.

Various methods of Root Cause Analysis –

1. The “5-Whys” Analysis” —

The ‘5 Whys’ is the simplest method for structured root cause analysis. It is a question asking method used to explore the cause/effect relationships underlying the problem. The investigator keeps asking the question ‘Why?’ until meaningful conclusions are reached.

It is generally suggested that a minimum of five questions need to be asked, although sometimes additional questions are required or useful, as it is important to ensure that the questions continue to be asked until the real cause is identified rather than a partial conclusion. As previously mentioned it is usually necessary to obtain information or objective evidence at each stage of the process, it is also sometimes necessary to re-phrase a question or make it more specific to obtain meaningful data, for example, instead of simply asking ‘why?’, ask ‘why was the operator not trained?’ or ‘why did the training process fail?’ or ‘why was the training process not effective on this occasion?’

2. Fish & Bone Diagram/Ishikawa Diagram or Cause & effect diagram –

A second commonly used method of root cause analysis, is the use of fishbone diagrams (sometimes referred to a Ishikawa models or Herringbone diagrams). They are most useful when the ‘5 whys’ is too basic, for example, where a complex issue needs to be considered in bite size pieces or where there is a lot of data that needs to be trended. In the diagram, the various causes are grouped into categories (such as equipment, materials or processes) and the arrows in the image indicate how the causes cascade or flow toward the non-conformity.

The categories are not pre-defined but common ones include:

Equipment – this should include consideration of all equipment that could have a role in the non-conformity, for example, production line, facilities, computers or tools Processes or Methods – how work is performed, policies, procedures, rules or work instructions Measurements – any data collection or measurement, either from a process or subsequent to the non-conformity, for example metal detection records, check weights or final product analysis Materials – any information relating to raw materials or final products, for example raw material specification or goods receipt checks for a specific batch of ingredient. Environment – The location, time, temperature, culture, standards of cleanliness or available time, for an activity. People – Any role involved in the implicated process

This type of root cause analysis is a causal process, it seeks to understand the possible causes by asking ‘what actually happened?’, ‘When?’, ‘Where?’ ‘Why?’, ‘How?’ and ‘So what?’ in other words a possible cause is identified and the consequences and significance is investigated for each of the group categories.

3. Pareto Analysis -

Pareto diagram is an easy to use technique that helps you to choose the most effective changes to be made. It uses a Pareto’s principle 1.e. the idea that by doing 20% of the work, you can generate the 80% of the advantage of doing the entire job. Pareto analysis is a formal technique for finding the changes, that will give the biggest benefits. It is useful where many possible courses of action are competing for the attention

Corrective Action& Preventive Action –

It is a deviation management program that focuses on the systematic investigation of discrepancies, adverse events, or failures. The purpose of the corrective and preventive subsystem is to collect and analyse information, identify and investigate problem, take appropriate corrective and preventive actions to prevent their (re)-occurrence.1. It provides a structured platform to conduct an systematic investigation of the

deviation.2. The investigation provides the means to develop a permanent corrective action.3. It provides a framework for documentation that the corrective actions are indeed

effective.

Corrective actions should always depend on the seriousness of the issue. For serious issues the actions taken should be timely and sufficient to prevent or reduce the impact of the issue on the consumer. In some cases this will require a product recall. Actions should also be focused on preventing a recurrence of the complaint and this can be facilitated by an analysis of the root cause. Actions should be defined clearly with responsibility assigned to a competent person with the authority to affect the required work or change. Deadlines should be set and agreed. Records of the action should be maintained including the completion date. All actions should be reviewed for effectiveness and closed out formally.

3. Responding to the complainant –

The complaints handling procedure should address how the complainant is responded to depending on the nature and seriousness of the issue. It is good practice to always inform the complainant of the outcome of investigations and corrective actions and where there is a protracted timeline in the workflow they should be notified of this and given regular updates on any progress

4. Complaint monitoring and trending –

As part of your complaints handling procedure, complaint trends should be monitored. This can include complaint numbers which can be tracked against units sold and complaint type. It is good practice to build into your system a requirement that an increase in complaints must prompt an investigation. You can set targets and have a plan in place to reduce complaint levels in general and for worst offending categories/products. Information from trend analysis of complaints should be communicated to the site management and production teams where appropriate. Complaint trend information can also be graphically displayed on suitable notice boards at site access points to ensure staff are always aware and up to date on complaints being received. Examples of complaints may also be displayed to increase awareness, e.g. foreign bodies. Mechanisms should be in place for briefing and discussing preventative action with production teams including works and employee meetings held on a scheduled basis. The following are examples of how complaint data may be trended and presented.

c) Time Period

S. No. Procedure Time Period1

Manual feeding of complaints in the online portal and creating Unique ID.

Within 24 hours

2

First scrutiny of the complaint by RCD & forwarding the same to the DO/reverting to

consumer with suitable reason in case grievance is not suitable.

Within 24 hours

3 Time taken by DO to submit report to FSSAI Max 15 days

4Time taken by Nodal Officer to submit

corrective action report to DO/FSOMax 15 days

5Total time taken by FSSAI to redress the

grievanceMax 30 days

d) Benefits of “Food Safety Connect”

The Food Safety Connect will benefit the three key stakeholders’ i.e.

1. Consumers

Easy, simple and user friendly channels to raise concerns anytime, anywhere as per convenience. Consumers can track their concern to know the status of their compliant and see the resolution provided with regard to it.Empower consumers on their rights and responsibilities.Awareness about errant FBOs using their License/Certificate Number and recognise the good practitioners in Food Businesses.

2. Food Businesses

Transparent and credible exchange of information with The State Regulators and FSSAIOpportunity to self-evaluate on ComplianceUnderstand Consumer Expectations betterIdentify Vulnerabilities across the chain for prompt improvementContribute in the development of the ecosystem on food safety and standards

3. FSSAI and State/UT Officials

Provides a “view on Food Safety Compass” in the State/CountryEnables a tool for planning and Enforcement activitiesEnhanced self- compliance from the Food businessesShares data on wilful violations by FBOs and ways to improveIdentify & Forecast Points of Risk for improving GMP and HACCP

9. Consumer Oriented FSSAI InitiativesAs a part of mandate to ensure safe food to the citizens, FSSAI has introduced a bouquet of initiatives for citizen guidance and behavioural change. Through its initiatives FSSAI is creating awareness among the citizens and also educating them about safe & nutritious food requirements. FSSAI has taken a 360 degree approach to food safety and healthy nutrition to prevent food borne infections and diseases and for complete nutrition for citizens everywhere at all times. Major initiatives working toward consumer education & awareness are -

a) DART – Detect Adulteration through Rapid Test

DART is a book which allows consumer to perform common quick tests for detection of adulterants at household. Food is essential for sustenance of life. Adulteration of food deceives the consumer and can cause risk to their health. The purpose of this manual is to

list out common methodologies available for detection of food adulterants generally found in India.

b) Safe & Nutritious Food – Home, School, When Eating Out, Workplace

Safe & Nutritious food – A way of life is an initiative to ensure that safe and nutritious food is being cooked, served & consumed when you eat at home, schools, workplace & when you eat out (restaurants, street food, places of worship & at railways).

Through this initiative, both food handlers & consumers are targeted to create awareness and educate them about food safety, hygiene & nutrition, to bring a behavioural change among them towards safe food.

a. SNF@Home – In this initiative, targeted audience is anyone who cook food at home, domestic maids/servants, cook etc. A book has been developed to educate, titled “Pink Book” which mention basic food safety & hygiene tips when you handle food at home. Training of personnel to create awareness involved in cooking at home is a part of the initiative.

b. SNF@School - In this initiative, targeted audience is school students who eat food at school, either brought from home or being served at the canteen. A book is being developed to educate the students about basic food safety, hygiene & nutrition when you eat food at school. Training of studentsto create awareness is a part of the initiative.

c. SNF@Workplace–In this initiative, targeted audience is employees who eat food at office either brought from home or being served at the canteen. A book is being developed to educate the employees about basic food safety, hygiene & nutrition when you eat food at office. Training of employees to create awareness is a part of the initiative.

d. SNF@WhenEatingOut-In this initiative, targeted audience is anyone who eats out and the food handlers who prepare food. This include food that is being served at restaurant or other catering establishments, places of worship, street food & at railways. Training manuals are being developed to train the food handlers about basic food safety, hygiene & nutrition when they prepare food. Training of food handlers to create awareness is a part of the initiative.

c) Food Safety Display Boards

As a part of the initiative SNF@WhenEatingOut, Food Safety Display Boards have been created for consumer education and awareness. To change the overall consumer perceptibility of consumers about FSSAI, Food Safety Display Boards (FSDBs) will be introduced at various food businesses which deals directly with the consumers such as, retail stores, milk booths, vegetable & fruit retail, meat shops, restaurants, street food vendors. The various features of FSDB are:

FSSAI license No. Important Food Safety and Hygiene Practices Consumer Feedback Details

These FSDB will replace the current requirement in the FSS regulations which necessitate food businesses to display FSSAI Registration / license, which is not really visible to the customer. FSDBs will not only make FSSAI registration/license number visible but will also inform the customer and the food handler about the important food safety and hygiene practices required to keep food safe.

d) Water Portal

This portal, assures that the information pertaining to the manufacturing/ processing of packaged drinking water/ mineral water should be more transparent to the consumers. Amplified as a 'confidence building exercise' for the packaged drinking water, this project aims to strive that consumers have the right to expect that the packaged drinking water/ beverage they purchase should be safe and of high quality Consumers shall be able to verify the physical, chemical & microbiological safety of packaged drinking water/ mineral water through the system developed for the purpose. Through this portal, consumer by entering the FSSAI license no/BIS No.batch no. of the product, can get the complete quality test report of the packaged drinking water they are consuming.

Annexure 1Feedback form for FBOs

PART A - GENERAL INFORMATION

1. Name and full address of the organization

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

2. Name of the Head of the organization along with contact details.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

3. Annual Turnover of the company (Rupees crores)

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

4. Main Activities of the company

Manufacturing Marketing/Retail

Processing Transportation

Packaging Supplier

Import Storage

Wholesale Distribution

Catering Canteen

Hospitality Restaurant

Other (Please Specify)

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

5. Details of company location (Headquarters & major branch Offices)

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

6. Major Food Product categories

Milk & milk products Fats and oils

Food catering Fruits and vegetables

Confectionery Cereals and pulses

Bakery Products Meat, Fish, Eggs and their products

Salt and spices Beverages

Nutraceutical products Food Additives

Other (Please Specify)

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Part B – COMPLAINT HANDLING MECHANISM1. Is your company ISO 22000 certified?

a. Yesb. No

2. Does your company have a consumer complaint handling mechanism? a. Yes b. No

3. What is the mode of receiving consumer complaints?a. Social Mediab. Letterc. Emaild. Toll free numbere. Others (Please specify)...............................................................................................

4. What is the average number of complaints received per month?

a. Less than 10

b. 10-20

c. More than 20 (Please specify number) ................................................................

5. What is the average time taken to resolve a consumer complaint?

a. Less than 24hrs

b. 24 – 72hrs

c. More than 72hrs (Please Specify) ...........................................................................

6. What is the ratio of resolved to unresolved consumer complaints? .....................

7. Briefly describe the consumer grievance complaint handling mechanism followed in your company.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Note - All responses should pertain to Food safety & hygiene related consumer complaints.

Kindly provide details of a designated senior manager as a Single Point Of Contact with FSSAI for consumer complaint handling.

a. Name

b. Designation

c. Email id

d. Contact number

e. Location

Signatures with Date

Annexure 2

S. No. Particulars Weblinks1. FSSAI www.fssai.gov.in2. FSSAI Act, Rules &

Regulationshttp://www.fssai.gov.in/home/fss-legislation/food-safety-and-standards-act.html

3. FSSAI Rules http://www.fssai.gov.in/home/fss-legislation/food-safety-and-standards-rule.html

4. FSSAI Regulations http://www.fssai.gov.in/home/fss-legislation/fss-regulations.html

5. Consumer Protection Act, 1986

http://ncdrc.nic.in/bare_acts/Consumer%20Protection%20Act-1986.html

6. FSSAI Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/fssai

7. FSSAI Twitter https://twitter.com/fssaiindia8. FSSAI Youtube https://www.youtube.com/user/FoodsafetyinIndia9. Food Safety Connect

Android Apphttps://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fssai.fssai&hl=en

10. Food Safety Connect – Online portal

https://foodlicensing.fssai.gov.in/cmsweb/

11. CPGRAM Portal http://pgportal.gov.in/cpgoffice/

12. Smart Consumer App

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.codebrew.smartconsumer&hl=en

13. GAMA Portal http://gama.gov.in/Default.aspx

14. Local Circles http://www.localcircles.com/a/home

15. FSSAI Initiatives – DART, SNF, FSDBs, Water Portal

www.fssai.gov.in

Important weblinks