FSSAI Food Licence / Registration (FoSCoS)

What is an FSSAI licence or registration?

Every person who manufactures, stores, transports, distributes, sells or serves food in India must hold an approval from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. Depending on the size of the business, that approval takes one of three forms:

• Registration, the smallest tier, for food businesses with annual turnover up to Rs 1.5 crore. Applied for in Form A.
• State Licence, for turnover above Rs 1.5 crore and up to Rs 50 crore. Applied for in Form B, issued by the state licensing authority.
• Central Licence, for turnover above Rs 50 crore, and compulsorily for certain categories regardless of turnover. Also Form B, issued by FSSAI.

Applications are filed on the Food Safety Compliance System (FoSCoS) at foscos.fssai.gov.in. FSSAI issues a 14-digit licence or registration number which food businesses are required to display, and which appears on packaged food labels.

The thresholds above are the revised ones, published by FSSAI in its eligibility criteria and fee document updated on 1 April 2026 following the Food Safety and Standards (Licensing and Registration of Food Businesses) Amendment Regulations, 2026. The earlier thresholds were Rs 12 lakh for Registration and Rs 20 crore for the Central Licence, so a very large number of small businesses moved down a tier.

Who needs an FSSAI licence, and who needs only a registration?

You need at least a Registration if you run any food business at all, a hawker, a tea or snacks stall, a dhaba, a sweet shop, a home-based canteen or dabbawalla service, a small retailer, a canteen, a restaurant under Rs 1.5 crore turnover, or a dairy or milling unit under the turnover limit.

You need a Central Licence regardless of turnover if you fall in a category FSSAI reserves to itself. The official eligibility document lists these as having "no restriction on turnover threshold":

• Importers and Trader/Merchant-Exporters
• E-commerce food businesses
• Proprietary food manufacturers
• Food or health supplements and nutraceuticals
• Non-specified food and food ingredients
• Ayurveda Aahara
• Radiation processing of food
• 100% export-oriented units and exporter-manufacturers
• Food businesses at airports and seaports
• Head office / registered office of a business operating in two or more states or UTs

You cannot use the Registration tier if your turnover exceeds Rs 1.5 crore, or if your business falls into one of the compulsory Central Licence categories above. Some categories also sit permanently at State Licence level, all grains, cereals and pulses milling units need a State Licence with no turnover limit at all, and hotels rated up to 4 star need a State Licence while 5 star and above need a Central Licence.

What does an FSSAI licence cost?

The fees below are per annum, from the official FoSCoS eligibility and fee document updated on 1 April 2026:

Two categories pay nothing:

• Hawkers (itinerant or mobile food vendors), registration fee Rs 0, waived with effect from 28 September 2024.
• Anganwadi (ICDS) Centres; registration fee Rs 0, waived with effect from 12 March 2025.

Some special categories have their own rates. Food catering services in establishments under Central Government agencies and food businesses at railway stations pay Rs 2,000 for the Central Licence tier and Rs 100 for Central Registration.

You choose a validity period when you apply and pay the fee for that many years, so the amount payable at checkout is the annual fee multiplied by the years you select. GST applies on Central, Railways, Airport and Seaport applications, and on a reverse charge basis for State licence and registration applications.

What documents are required?

For a Registration Certificate, the official FoSCoS document list is short:

1. Photograph
2. Government-issued photo ID such as Aadhaar, PAN or Voter ID
3. Proof of address of the business activity, only if that address is different from the one on the photo ID card

Separately, PAN compliance is mandatory for FSSAI Licence and Registration.

For a State or Central Licence, the document set is larger and depends on your Kind of Business (KoB). A manufacturer's list is not a wholesaler's list. Rather than guess, open the "Documents Required" link on the FoSCoS home page and read the list for your KoB before you start the application. FSSAI also clarifies that no other permission is a prerequisite to applying, with two exceptions: a BIS licence or receipt for manufacturers of packaged drinking water or mineral water, and a CGWA NOC if you extract groundwater.

How to apply for an FSSAI licence or registration online

1. Open foscos.fssai.gov.in and use the Eligibility Criteria check on the home page to confirm whether your business needs a Registration, State Licence or Central Licence, and what the fee will be.
2. Select Apply for New License/Registration and choose your state and district, then your Kind of Business from the FSSAI list. Getting the KoB right matters more than anything else in the form — it decides your fee, your document list and your licensing authority.
3. Fill Form A for a Registration or Form B for a State or Central Licence, entering business name, premises address, the person in charge of operations, and the food products you handle.
4. Upload the documents from the official document list for your KoB, including the photograph and photo ID.
5. Choose the validity period you want and pay the fee online through the FoSCoS portal. FSSAI warns that all licence and registration payments should be made only through the official portal.
6. Note the 17-digit application reference number shown on submission, this is what you use to track the application, and it is also a valid FoSCoS login before your licence number is issued.
7. Track progress with Track Application on the FoSCoS home page, and respond promptly to any query raised by the licensing authority.
8. Once granted, the QR-coded certificate is emailed to the ID declared in your application, and can also be downloaded any time from your FoSCoS login.

Certain categories can use the Instant (Tatkal) Licence/Registration route, a provision FSSAI extended pan-India with effect from 31 August 2024. The FoSCoS home page carries both the Tatkal application link and a note on which states and UTs have it restricted or only partially enabled.

There is no offline application route. FoSCoS is the only channel, though the portal is available in Hindi, English, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu and Marathi. Offline treasury challan payment exists only for registration-type applications; FSSAI states there is no provision for offline payment for a licence application.

How long does an FSSAI licence take?

According to the official FoSCoS FAQ, a licence has to be issued by the Licensing Authority within 60 days of a complete application. In practice, Registrations are usually far quicker than licences because they need fewer documents and no inspection, and Tatkal categories are issued instantly.

Two timing rules that catch people out:

• Renewals can be filed 180 days in advance, and must be filed at least 30 days before expiry to avoid a late fee of Rs 100 per day. Renewing on the day of expiry therefore adds Rs 3,000.
• Expired licences can still be renewed up to 180 days after expiry, with penalty.

Renewals of licences and registrations have been made instant; without requiring approval from the authorities, with effect from 12 January 2023.

Why do FSSAI applications get rejected or stuck?

• Wrong Kind of Business selected. The single most common cause of a query or rejection. Use the eligibility check and the KoB definitions on FoSCoS before applying.
• Wrong tier applied for. Applying for a Registration when your turnover needs a State Licence, or a State Licence when your product category demands a Central Licence, gets the application bounced.
• No response to a query within the timeline. FSSAI auto-rejects applications where the applicant does not respond to the licensing authority's queries within the specified time. There is a streamlined reactivation procedure; make an online request to the authorities within 15 days.
• Incomplete or mismatched documents, especially proof of premises. FSSAI has issued specific clarifications on proof of premises, including for shared workspaces.
• Missing annual return. Annual Return filing and payment of any penalty has been made mandatory for manufacturers and importers before a renewal application can be filed.
• Wrong email address, so the certificate never arrives, download it from your FoSCoS login instead.

Where do I complain or appeal?

• FoSCoS helpdesk: 1800-11-2100, 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM
• Email: helpdesk-foscos@fssai.gov.in
• Appeal against a licensing decision: to the Commissioner of Food Safety of your state under Section 32 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. The list of Commissioners is published on fssai.gov.in.
• Central Licence delays or auto-rejections: write to the Director of the relevant FSSAI Regional Office.
• Consumer complaints about food (as opposed to licensing) go through the Food Consumer Grievance link on FoSCoS, or the Food Safety Connect app.

A warning about agents and fake fee demands

Applying on FoSCoS yourself is straightforward, and the government fee is all you pay, Rs 100 a year for a Registration, Rs 5,000 for a State Licence, Rs 7,500 for a Central Licence, and nothing at all for a hawker. Consultants routinely charge several thousand rupees for what is a form and an upload; you are free to use one, but you should know exactly what the government portion of the cost is before you agree.

FSSAI has itself issued a warning worth repeating: some food business operators receive fraudulent messages or emails asking for payments or sensitive information. FSSAI states that all official communication is sent only from foscos-notifications@fssai.gov.in, and that all payments related to licence or registration must be made only through the official FoSCoS portal at foscos.fssai.gov.in. Verify the sender before acting, and never pay a licence fee into a personal account or UPI ID.

How to check your application status

1. Go to foscos.fssai.gov.in and click Track Application on the home page, you do not need to log in for a basic status lookup.
2. Enter the 17-digit application reference number you were given at the time of submission. Keep this number saved separately from your email, since it is the only lookup key if the email you registered turns out to be wrong.
3. The status shown will be one of a few stages: application received, under scrutiny by the licensing authority, query raised (action needed from you), inspection pending or completed (for a licence, not a registration), approved, or rejected.
4. If the status reads query raised, log in to your FoSCoS account with the same reference number or your registered mobile/email, open the query, and upload the requested clarification or document. Do this well within the response window, since FSSAI auto-rejects applications that go unanswered within the specified time.
5. Once the status shows approved, log in to FoSCoS and download the QR-coded licence or registration certificate directly from your account, rather than waiting on the email, which is the step most people skip and then wrongly assume their application is still pending.
6. If the portal shows no movement for well beyond the 60-day issuance window, or the tracker itself will not load your reference number, call the FoSCoS helpdesk at 1800-11-2100 (9:00 AM to 6:00 PM) or write to helpdesk-foscos@fssai.gov.in with the reference number, rather than resubmitting a fresh application.
7. There is no SMS-based status check and no offline counter to check status at, FoSCoS is the only system of record, so an agent or consultant telling you the status by phone should still be independently verified by you on the portal.