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Stating that certain provisions of the food safety regulations are ‘impracticable’ for implementation ‘in the absence of an effective and meaningful bifurcation between restaurants, street vendors, food trucks and hawkers,’ the High Court of Karnataka has directed the Central government to frame separate guidelines for large, medium and small restaurants, etc., as the present regulations are made applicable to food industry only based on their annual business turnover. The court has directed the Karnataka government to bring health and safety standard regulations for all street vendors, food trucks and create a mechanism for vigil over its strict implementation. Justice M. Nagaprasanna issued the directions while disposing of a petition filed, way back in 2012, by Karnataka Pradesh Hotel and Restaurants Association, Bruhat Bengaluru Hotels Association. The associations had challenged certain provisions of the Food Safety and Standards (FS&S) (Licensing and Registration of Food Businesses) Regulations, 2011; FS&S (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations; FS&S (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations and the penalties prescribed under the FS&S Act. Though court found no arbitrariness or illegalities either in the Act or the regulations as the legal validity of these laws were already upheld by various other high courts and the apex court after filing of this petition in 2012, the court found that the regulations “does create certain impracticability” for implementation, as the food industry is bifurcated only based on their annual business turnover. “... the bifurcation must ensue, so that the standards of food and health are maintained at every rung of consumption; consumption be it in a large restaurant, small restaurant, food trucks or even vending in the street,” the court said. The new law or guideline specifically and separately for restaurant businesses, bifurcating them into small, medium, and large businesses, should clearly indicate the hygiene, cooking processes, procurement of raw material, etc., to be in conformity with traditional Indian standards of cooking and cooking processes, the court said. “It is a cultural truth that the street food in India is a cherished norm. Therefore, from humble roadside stalls, to the modern food trucks or uber restaurants, the spirit of Indian cuisine thrives. However, the licensing and registration of food businesses draw their lines of demarcation upon annual turnover, distinguishing the petty business from the large restaurant, merely one economic scales,” the court observed. The court further said, “even if the food trucks are to be regulated, as long as there is human consumption of food. The food that is consumed should be healthy. Maintenance of standards of food, for health reasons, for every citizen is the duty of the State by bringing in a regulatory regime that is far from obfuscation”.
