MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court granted an interim stay on an order passed by the authorities, suspending the licence of a KFC outlet in Thoothukudi district.
Justice GR Swaminathan, while hearing a petition filed by Sapphire Foods India Limited seeking to quash the order and summons of the designated officer of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), said as pointed out by the senior counsel appearing for the petitioner, the order is liable to be faulted on several grounds.
According to Section 32 (1) of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 improvement notices are issued. If the business operator fails to comply with improvement notice, the licence can be suspended. In this case, the license has been suspended straightaway in the first instance.
“The primary ground set out is that the petitioner has used Magnesium Silicate Synthetic. The designated officer submitted that edible oil cannot be reused, and relied on the provisions of the Food Safety and Standards (Licensing and Registration of Food Businesses) Regulations 2011. I am satisfied that clause (e) [that is re-use of cooking oil should be avoided] is like an advisory whereas clause (j) [that is in case of reheating of oil, it must be done a maximum of three times to avoid the formation of trans fat and is ideal to use once if possible] is mandatory,” the court said.
‘Processing aid yet to be notified’
Court observed that it did not find merit in the objection that reuse of edible oil is prohibited. The Director, Regulation Division, FSSAI issued a circular, calling upon the authorities not to take punitive action on Food Business Operators for using processing aids listed in the Annexure that are yet to be notified for enforcement