FSSAI introduces 'Special Category' provision to promote gender equality in food biz

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has introduced a new provision of ‘Special Category’ in the online Food Safety Compliance System (FoSCoS) portal. The newly launched provision aims at promoting gender equality and equal opportunities for women and transgender entrepreneurs in the food business sector.

"Under this provision, licensing and registering authorities will process 'Special Category' applications in a balanced manner to maintain one-to-one ratio alongside regular applications, until there are no pending application in either category," the authority said in a statement.

"The identification of these individuals will be done during the application submission process through Aadhaar/PAN authentication," the statement further added.