FSSAI Registration in Kolkata

The West Bengal food safety set-up

Food safety in West Bengal sits with the Commissioner of Food Safety in the Health and Family Welfare Department, whose food safety branch issues circulars to food businesses. Each district has a Designated Officer who acts as the licensing authority for State licences, with Food Safety Officers handling inspections. The branch's circulars address the Kolkata Municipal Corporation area separately from the districts, so a premises inside KMC and one in Howrah or North 24 Parganas are dealt with by different officers. On FoSCoS this is decided by the premises address, so getting the address and ward right matters.

Central licences, for importers, e-commerce platforms and turnover above ₹50 crore, are handled by FSSAI's Eastern Region office in Salt Lake Sector V, not by the state.

The local body document West Bengal asks for

A circular of the West Bengal food safety branch dated 21 October 2024, published on FoSCoS, asks food businesses to upload a document from their local body:

• for most licence applications, such as manufacturers, restaurants, hotels and caterers, a Certificate of Enlistment from the local body;
• for registration applications, a no objection certificate from the local body.

In Kolkata, the Certificate of Enlistment is what most people call the trade licence. Which body issues it depends on where the premises is: the Kolkata Municipal Corporation for the core city, the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation for Salt Lake, NKDA for New Town, and the Howrah Municipal Corporation across the river. Apply for it first, or alongside, because a FoSCoS application without it is likely to come back with a query. We do not quote municipal fees, which each body sets.

Common Kolkata cases

• A restaurant with one premises needs one credential, Basic or State by turnover, plus its enlistment certificate. A chain needs one for each outlet.
• A cloud kitchen brand running three kitchens needs three credentials, one per kitchen, even if they share a name on the app.
• A home baker in Behala or Lake Town usually takes a Basic registration for the home kitchen; the local body NOC still applies.
• A marketplace seller licenses its own kitchen or warehouse by turnover. A brand selling through its own website or app is an e-commerce food business and needs a Central licence.
• A trader importing dry fruits or tea through the Kolkata port needs a Central licence for the importing activity, whatever the turnover.
• A registered street vendor under the Street Vendors Act is deemed registered under FSSAI for that activity.
• An older State licence. Many Kolkata restaurants and sweet shops took a State licence when the Basic limit was ₹12 lakh. With turnover under ₹1.5 crore they may now fall under Basic registration. That is worth checking before the next annual fee is due, but it is not urgent: an existing licence stays valid, and we look at the FoSCoS dashboard first for any end date shown on a licence issued before 1 April 2026.

One more point catches businesses out. The kind of business chosen on FoSCoS has to match what the premises actually does. A sweet shop that also makes sweets on site is a manufacturer as well as a retailer, and a caterer is not a restaurant. A wrong choice is the most common reason for a query from the officer.

Worked example: one sweet shop business, four premises

Illustrative only. A Kolkata mishti business has a shop in Gariahat, a karkhana in Tiljala, a cloud kitchen in Salt Lake and sells boxed sweets through its own website.

The karkhana's State licence number should appear on the boxed sweets it packs, and the website needs its own Central licence because the business runs its own e-commerce channel.