Licenses Required for Setting up Spice Grinding Units

India is one of the largest producer and exporter of spices in the world. To start a business entity as spice grinding units in India, it is mandatory to obtain the following registrations/licenses:-

A. Register the business entity either as an OPC, LLP, Private Company, Partnership firm or any other model suitable for the business plans.

B.   Goods & Services Tax registration for the filing of tax and returns.

C. MSME Udyog Aadhaar certification to avail the benefits offered by the government.

D.   Trade license from the state health department in order to safeguard public health and hygiene.

E.    ISO certification from Bureau of Indian Standards, for example, Chili powder is to be certified under ISI-2445-1963, coriander is certified under ISI-2444-1963, turmeric powder ISI-2446-1963.

F.   AGMARK certification that is approved by the Directorate of Marketing and Inspection, a Government approved agency. State-owned AGMARK labs across the country test and certify agricultural products on their quality.

G.    Registration-cum-membership certificate from the Spice Board of India.

H.   Food License from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India.

FSSAI License - In order to guarantee the international and the domestic market  of the quality of Indian spices, the FSSAI has made it mandatory for spice grinding units that sell, trade, retail, export, process or grind spices in India should apply for the food license to begin their operations and continue to run commercially.

The spice grinding units for different Indian spices like turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, saffron, poppy, nutmeg, aniseed, pepper etc. have varying guidelines specified by FSSAI. These guidelines pertain to permissible limits of the presence of extraneous matter, moisture, total ash, ash insoluble, volatile oil content and insect damaged matter in the spice. FSSAI also mentions that the spice must be free from artificial coloring items, foreign vegetable matter, mold, living and dead insects, rodent contamination and other such harmful substances.

In case the spice grinding unit is capable of grinding more than 100 kg/liter to 2 MT/ day, it needs to go in for the State license that is obtained from the state licensing authority. In case the production capacity of the unit is less than that mentioned above, the basic FSSAI registration should be good to start with. For a spice grinding unit which can process more than 2 MT/day spices, the central license that is issued by the Central licensing authority would be applicable.

Some of the documents required to obtain the Food License are:-

a.    Form-A for basic registration and Form –B for state and central license

b.    List of directors/proprietors/partners

c.    Photo Id and address proof of each of the owners

d.   Partnership Deed or the Certificate of Incorporation

e.    Ownership proof of the premises or rental agreement

f.     A food safety management plan or certificate

Few additional documents that would be required for the state or the central license include:-

a.   Layout plan of the grinding unit

b.    List of machinery and equipment installed

The license, once issued is valid for a maximum of five years. For renewal of the FSSAI license, the necessary documents that need to be presented are - Form-B; annual audit report and food safety management plan. The applicable fee for getting a new central license or renewing is Rs. 7500 per year while the state license costs Rs. 5000 per year.

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