FSSAI Inspection: 5 Records Inspectors Ask For

What an inspector actually asks for

Reuters reported in September 2026 that Maharashtra's food commissioner Tukaram Mundhe had run more than 3,000 raids since May alone — and that roughly one in five of the 100,000-plus samples FSSAI tests each year comes back unsafe, substandard or mislabelled. Around 8,000 food business licences have been cancelled in three years.

That's not background noise. That's a real probability that someone walks into your store, warehouse or restaurant with a clipboard.

Most operators think about compliance in the abstract — "we follow rules" — until an inspector asks for a specific document and the scramble starts. This post is about the five things they actually ask for, the regulation behind each one, and what a reasonable paper or digital trail looks like.

Record 1: Your licence number — displayed and on every bill

FSSAI made this mandatory from 1 October 2021: your 14-digit FSSAI licence or registration number must appear on every bill, cash memo, invoice and receipt you issue. It must also be displayed at the premises.

This is the first thing an inspector checks because it tells them which tier of rules applies to you. If your billing software prints a generic receipt without the number, fix that before anything else. It's a quick win that costs nothing.

Record 2: A current expiry list — printed or pulled in under a minute

Inspectors seize expired stock and publish the results. That's not a legal requirement on your end — it's what happens when they find something. What you need is proof that you were on top of it before they arrived.

A practical expiry list shows every batch on shelf, its manufacture and expiry date, and its quantity. If you're running a spreadsheet, print it the morning of any inspection. If you're on a system, you should be able to pull the report in under a minute — filtered to anything expiring in the next 30 days.

The FSSAI expiry inspection guide covers what inspectors look for in this report specifically.

For food distributors, the FSS (Food Recall Procedure) Regulations 2017 (reg 6(1)) require you to keep distribution records — supplier name, customer name, lot or batch code, manufacture date, expiry date and best-before date — for one year past the expiry of the batch. That's the legal floor. Your expiry list is the live version of that record.

Record 3: Expired and recalled stock — segregated, with a disposal record

Finding expired stock on your shelf is bad. Finding it mixed with sellable stock is worse. Inspectors look for physical segregation: expired, recalled or rejected batches should be in a separate, labelled area — not the back corner of the same shelf.

But segregation alone isn't enough. You need a disposal record: which batch, how much, the reason (expired, contaminated, temperature excursion, recalled), what action was taken, and when. Manufacturers, repackers, relabellers and importers also have a harder obligation — under an FSSAI advisory dated 16 December 2024, they must file a quarterly report of expired and rejected stock by batch, with disposal action, through FoSCoS. The filing itself is manual.

For everyone else, a well-kept disposal log is your defence. It shows you found the problem and acted on it — before the inspector did.

Under the FSS Act 2006 (s.59), selling food that is unsafe carries serious criminal penalties, including imprisonment. The Act is explicit about this. A disposal record is the evidence that you did not sell it.

Record 4: Batch trace — backward to supplier, forward to buyer

This is where most operators freeze. An inspector holds up a product and asks: where did this come from, and who else did you sell it to?

The FSS (Food Recall Procedure) Regulations 2017 (reg 6(1)) require exactly this: supplier and customer names, lot/batch code, manufacture and expiry dates — kept for one year past expiry. If a recall is triggered, you have 24 hours to notify the Food Authority (reg 6(3)), with weekly status reports (reg 9) and a post-recall report (reg 11) to follow.

A 24-hour clock on a recall notification is not a lot of time if you're hunting through paper invoices and WhatsApp messages to figure out who received the affected batch.

The batch and lot traceability setup guide walks through how to build this trail whether you're on paper or software. The principle is the same either way: capture the batch code and expiry at the point of receipt, and record it on every outbound document.

Record 5: A current temperature log — for anything cold

If you store or sell anything that requires refrigeration — dairy, meat, prepared foods, certain beverages — inspectors will ask for your temperature log. Not a verbal assurance. A log.

A basic log records the time, the reading, and who took it. A good one also records what happened when the reading was out of range: was the batch quarantined, was it disposed of, was the supplier notified?

For e-commerce food sellers, FSSAI's direction from 12 November 2024 requires at least 30% of shelf life or 45 days remaining at the point of delivery. Temperature excursions that you can't document create liability you can't defend.

The cold-chain temperature log guide for grocery covers what a compliant log looks like and how to avoid the common gaps.

What a notebook can and cannot do

A well-kept paper system can satisfy most of these records for a small operation. The problems show up under pressure: a busy receiving dock where batch codes don't get written down, a disposal log that's three weeks behind, a temperature sheet that was never printed this month.

The structural issue is that paper records require consistent human discipline across every shift, every day. One gap in the chain is enough for an inspector to question the whole record.

A digital system doesn't eliminate the discipline requirement — someone still has to scan the batch at receipt, take the temperature reading, record the disposal. But it removes the transcription step, timestamps everything automatically, and means the expiry list and batch trace are available in seconds rather than minutes.

The five records, summarised

• Licence number — on display and on every bill (FSSAI order, effective 1 Oct 2021)
• Expiry list — current, by batch, pullable fast
• Disposal record — segregated stock with reason, action and date; quarterly FoSCoS filing for manufacturers and importers (FSSAI advisory, 16 Dec 2024)
• Batch trace — supplier to buyer, one year past expiry (FSS Food Recall Procedure Regulations 2017, reg 6(1))
• Temperature log — current readings, excursions documented

A starting point

If your expiry records are the weakest link right now, the daily date-check log template is a free download — a simple daily format that covers batch, expiry, quantity and action taken. It won't automate anything, but it will give your team a consistent habit to build on.

ShelfLifePro serves food retail and distribution businesses across India. Expired stock cannot be billed at the counter — not a warning, a refusal. Batch trace runs backward to the supplier invoice and forward to every buyer, transfer and return as a one-click PDF. If that's useful, the 14-day free trial requires no credit card.