FSSAI Licence in India — What the 2026 Rules Changed

Which FSSAI licence do you need?

It depends on your annual turnover. Up to ₹1.5 crore you need Basic Registration; from ₹1.5 crore to ₹50 crore, a State Licence; above ₹50 crore, a Central Licence. Some categories need a Central Licence whatever their turnover.

Those thresholds are new. They took effect on 1 April 2026 and they replaced limits that had stood for years — ₹12 lakh for Basic Registration and ₹20 crore for the Central Licence. If you are reading an older guide, or you were told what you needed before April, check again: a great deal of small food business that used to require a State Licence now sits comfortably inside Basic Registration.

All three are applied for on FoSCoS, the Food Safety Compliance System at foscos.fssai.gov.in, which replaced the older FLRS portal in 2020. There is only one portal; if a site tells you otherwise, you are on an intermediary's page, not the government's.

What changed on 1 April 2026?

Two significant things. The turnover thresholds went up sharply — Basic Registration from ₹12 lakh to ₹1.5 crore, the Central Licence trigger from ₹20 crore to ₹50 crore. And licences stopped expiring: they now run indefinitely, subject to paying an annual fee.

The amendment regulations were notified in March 2026 and the revised thresholds were implemented from 1 April. Alongside the numbers, a few structural changes are worth knowing:

• Perpetual validity. A licence or registration is now valid and subsisting unless it is suspended, cancelled or surrendered. The old choose-your-own one-to-five-year term, and the renewal cycle that went with it, are gone
• An annual fee replaces renewal. Miss it and the licence is treated as suspended — so the deadline still bites, it just bites differently
• Street vendors are covered automatically. Vendors, hawkers and food carts registered under the Street Vendors Act 2014 are now treated as registered under food safety law as well, without a separate application. The hygiene requirements still apply
• The "petty food business operator" category was widened to take in street vendors, food trucks and temporary stalls explicitly
• Inspection is moving to a risk-based model rather than routine visits, with third-party audits where the authority directs them

Who must have a Central Licence regardless of turnover?

Importers, exporters, e-commerce food businesses, 100% export-oriented units, and businesses whose head office covers operations in two or more states — plus specific product categories such as health supplements, nutraceuticals and proprietary foods.

This is the trap that catches growing businesses. You can be well under ₹50 crore and still need the Central Licence because of what or where you sell rather than how much. The categories that need it whatever their size include:

• Importers and exporters of food, and 100% export-oriented units
• E-commerce food business operators — the platform itself
• Multi-state operations — the head or registered office of a business operating in two or more states
• Airport and seaport food operations, and food business at railway stations
• Health supplements, nutraceuticals, proprietary foods, non-specified foods and Ayurveda Aahara manufacturers
• Radiation-processing units and central government food agencies
• Five-star and above hotels

The multi-state one is the most commonly missed. Open a second kitchen across a state border and the head office requirement can be triggered even though neither location is large.

What does an FSSAI licence cost?

The government fee is modest: ₹100 a year for Basic Registration, ₹5,000 a year for a State Licence and ₹7,500 a year for a Central Licence. Hawkers and mobile vendors, and Anganwadi centres, pay nothing.

Two things to say about these figures. First, they are the government's fee only — agents and consultants charge their own fee on top, often many times the licence cost itself, for a form you can complete yourself. Second, fees are revised from time to time without much announcement, so confirm the current amount on FoSCoS before you budget.

How long is an FSSAI licence valid now?

Indefinitely. Since the 2026 amendment a licence or registration remains valid and subsisting unless it is suspended, cancelled or surrendered — there is no fixed expiry date and no renewal application. What replaces renewal is a mandatory annual fee.

This is a genuine simplification, but it comes with a sting: if the annual fee is not paid, the licence is deemed suspended. Operating on a suspended licence is operating without one. So the discipline the old renewal date imposed has not disappeared — it has just moved to a payment date that is easier to forget precisely because nothing "expires".

Two practical points. If you close the business, you are required to notify within 30 days, and no fee refund is due on surrender. And on the amount charged to restore a licence that has been suspended for non-payment, the guidance in circulation is inconsistent — some sources describe a penalty, others just the arrears. Rather than rely on any figure quoted online, check your own licence status on FoSCoS and ask the licensing authority directly.

What do home bakers, cloud kitchens and Instagram sellers need?

Basic Registration, in almost every case. With the threshold now at ₹1.5 crore of annual turnover, a home baker, a single cloud kitchen or someone selling homemade pickles online is comfortably inside the entry tier — a ₹100-a-year registration you can apply for from home.

Some specific situations people ask about:

The platform question causes the most confusion, so to be clear: the rule that an e-commerce food business operator needs a Central Licence applies to the platform — Swiggy, Zomato, Amazon. It does not push every restaurant listed on them into the Central tier. As an individual seller you follow the ordinary turnover bands. What the platform will do is require your FSSAI number at onboarding and display it on your listing.

If you are selling packaged food, the labelling rules matter as much as the licence: the FSSAI number, product name, net quantity, ingredients, manufacturing and best-before dates, and your business name and address. And be careful with health claims in your posts — claims of that kind need separate approval.

What documents do you need?

Basic Registration is deliberately light. The higher tiers ask for progressively more.

There is a long-standing provision that if the authority does not act within the prescribed period, you may commence business anyway — a shorter window for registration than for a licence. It exists, and it is useful to know about if your application has gone quiet, but confirm the current day-counts on the portal before relying on it.

What is the penalty for running a food business without a licence?

A penalty of up to ₹10 lakh under Section 63 of the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006. This changed in November 2023 — the older penalty of up to six months' imprisonment and a ₹5 lakh fine was replaced, and imprisonment was removed from this section.

You will still find the old figure quoted widely online, including on sites that sell registration services. It is out of date. The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act 2023 converted a number of these offences into monetary penalties, and the amendments to the food safety law took effect from 8 November 2023.

Other penalties under the Act that are worth knowing about:

• Sub-standard food — a penalty running into lakhs, on a scale set by the Act
• Misbranded food — including incorrect or missing label information
• A general penalty for contraventions where no specific penalty is prescribed elsewhere

The more common real-world consequence for a small business, though, is not a penalty at all. It is being delisted by a delivery platform, or having an order held up, because the licence number on file has lapsed. That is what the annual fee date is really protecting.

Where must you display the 14-digit number?

On your premises, on your packaging, and on your e-commerce listings. The 14-digit FSSAI number is meant to be visible to the customer, not filed away — platforms verify it at onboarding and display it against your listing.

Restaurants commonly print it on the menu as well. That is expected practice and sensible, though the clearly established requirements are the premises, the label and the online listing. If you handle packaged goods, the number belongs on the label alongside the other mandatory particulars.

Official sources

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