FAQs on Eat Right Campus

1. Eligibility to become an Eat Right Campus?
Campuses such as colleges, universities, workplaces (private organizations, government organizations, public sector undertakings -PSUs), non-government organizations, hospitals, hotels (where the hotel staff eats in a separate canteen and not the restaurants where customers are served), Anganwadi Centres, jails, tea estates, police stations, child care centers, orphanages, old age homes etc., can apply for Eat Right Campus certification.
2. Can a residential school become an Eat Right Campus?
For schools, there is a separate program called Eat Right School (https://eatrightindia.gov.in/eatrightschool/). No category of school will be classified under the Eat Right Campus program.
3. Where can you register your campus for the certification program?
Link: https://eatrightindia.gov.in/EatRightCampus/applyOnline
4. Who can register on the portal?
A nodal officer from the campus itself should register on the portal. It is a 5 minutes process and require basic details like Name and Address of the campus, name of the food business operator serving etc. In case, the nodal officer is unable to do so, registration process can be initiated with the help of an implementation agency/ partner.
5. Who is an implementation agency?
FSSAI works with various like-minded agencies like NGOs and Not for profit associations for execution and implementation of Eat Right India initiatives. These agencies are well verse and understand the SOPs and implementation model for various Eat Right India initiatives including campus. They play a very important role towards on-ground execution of the projects including facilitation with local bodies like municipal corporations and state food safety departments; seeking necessary permissions in schools, campuses etc; registration and documentation on the portal and liaisoning with other stakeholders like training agencies, audit agencies (Hygiene Rating agency/ Third-party audit agency) and facilitate on-ground execution of the projects. Engaging an implementation agency is purely optional.
6. Who can be the implementation partner for Eat Right India initiatives?
State FDA/ FSSAI Regional Office/ CSR funding company/ NGOs and Not for profit associations etc can take up the role of an implementation partner. Campus administration itself can also play the role of an implementation partner if they are managing the end-to-end process.
7. Can a training agency and an audit partner be similar?
No, as both have a different role to play, they can't be similar. A training agency is responsible for the FoSTaC training and an audit agency (Hygiene Rating agency/ Third-party audit agency) are eligible to do post audit as per the checklist designed by the FSSAI. Further, it is to be noted that both (training agency and an audit partner) cannot be the implementation agency/ partner. This is basically to avoid any kind of conflict during the process.
8. Who can do the pre audit?
Pre-audit can be done by the nodal representative of the campus. Since it is the self assessment, the marks do not add in the final checklist. It only helps a campus to identify improvement areas/ gaps (if any).
9. Who can do the post audit?
Only an empanelled hygiene rating audit agency/ third party audit agency is eligible to conduct the post audit.
10. Who can be an auditor for the Eat Right Campus?
Only FSSAI empanelled audit agencies are eligible to do an audit for the campus under this scheme
11. What documents are necessarily required for the Eat Right Campus certification?
While filling up the Eat Right Campus application, campuses will be required to enter license details of FBOs, and FoSTaC training details. Hence it is advised to keep a copy of valid FSSAI license/ registration and FoSTaC trained food safety supervisor certificates while filling up the form. Along with that, the details/scores of pre-audit checklist and a post-audit checklist is required to be entered for the certification purpose. You will also be required to upload a water report and recommendation letter. As part of the initiative, campuses which have been awarded are requested to display the certificate at a prominent place in the campus and send the picture to Eat Right Campus via mail eatrightcampus@gmail.com/eatright-campus@fssai.gov.in
12. Any additional documents required?
It is compulsory to upload water testing report and recommendation proforma on the portal while applying for Eat Right Campus. Potable Water testing report provided by the NABL laboratory is required to be submitted in case of a licensed FBO/ canteen premises only. Water supply bills for commercial use in place of the Water Test Report in case water is being supplied by the Municipal Corporation (Government Body). A recommendation proforma signed by the Designated Officer (DO)/ FSO or FSSAI officials is a must. In case of CSR projects and/or if the implementation partner is other than FDA/ FSSAI/ any other government authority, the audit partners are authorized to sign the recommendation letter/proforma and upload it for Eat Right Campus certification.
13. How much time is required for the certification after submission of documents online?
After completion of the process and submission of all above documents, a time period of 30 days is required to review and validate all the documents and seek necessary approvals. Further, if there is any error in the documents or incomplete documents are submitted, in that case another 15 days will be required at the HQ level post seeking necessary clarifications.
14. What kind of food establishments exists in campus scenario?
A. In-house pantry and food area: Pantry: A room/area where beverages, food, and sometimes dishes, cleaning chemicals, linens, or provisions are stored. It may serve in an ancillary capacity to the main kitchen. People generally don't eat there, but come and heat their food or make tea/ coffee. Food Area: A serving room with seating arrangements for people to eat or drink. It may range from a full-fledged canteen seating area to a small set-up indoors or outdoors. B. In-house Canteen/Kitchen: Food service establishment in a campus in which food and beverages are prepared, served and consumed within the campus premises. It may or may not include a seating arrangement for people. C. Outsourced Catering Establishment/Services: A food service establishment that prepares food/beverages outside the campus premises and delivers prepared/cooked food and beverages to the campus. D. Vendors: This includes tuck shops, retail outlets and other food selling outlets or food vendors within the campus that sell cooked/packed/fresh/raw food and beverage items in the campus. They may be owned by the campus authorities or any other private entity or may function independently. For pantry area or food area, if present, the first checklist (under Part A) is to be used. The score for this section should be given out of 30. For in-house canteens, if present, the second checklist (under Part A) is to be used. The score for this section should be given out of 114.
15. What happens when there are multiple canteens/ kitchens in a campus?
In case of multiple pantry areas/food areas/ canteens/ kitchens, multiple checklists should be used to audit each premise for Section A. Post that, the scores of each individual checklist needs to be entered and average score should be updated in the Section A score.
16. If the campus has outsourced food facility to a vendor, in that case, is it mandatory to conduct audit of the vendor premises?
A campus may voluntarily do Hygiene Rating Certification of its outsourced catering establishment or food vendor, however, it is mandatory to check and provide License/Registration of each outsourced catering establishments serving campus. A single mark (#1 mark) should be given for each licensed/registered caterer, as applicable and the total should then be multiplied by 20 to get the score for this section out of 20 (mentioning in Section A)
17. Is it mandatory to also cover Vendor Tuck Shops/ Retail outlets serving in the campus?
While it is not mandatory, it is advisable to do hygiene rating/ third party audit of such units and hygiene rating score should be updated of each outlet. If present in the campus, they must be mandatorily licensed/ registered with FSSAI.
18. What is the validity of the campus?
The certification is valid for two years.
19. On the certificate, what all heads appear and how?
The certificate will have following fields:
a) Name of the Campus (this will be auto-fetched, hence, any mistake in the campus needs to be rectified during the registration itself by the nodal officer)
b) Auditing Partner - Name of the Audit Agency is required and not the Auditor (this will be autofetched, hence, name should be carefully updated on the upload documents console after login)
c) Training Partner - Name of the Training Agency is required and not the Trainer (this will be auto-fetched, hence, name should be carefully updated on the upload documents console after login)
d) Implementation Partner - Details to be provided as per Q No. 6. An Implementation Partner can be State FDA/ FSSAI Regional Office/ CSR funding company/ NGOs and Not for profit associations. Campus administration itself can also play the role of an implementation partner if they are managing the end-to-end process as well as funding. There can be 2 names in the column at once. For e.g., State FDA and CSR funding company OR State FDA and Implementation Agency OR CSR funding company and Implementation Agency.
20. What is the minimum qualifying scoring criterion for the certification?
If a campus scores more than 65% after the post audit, it is certified as an 'Eat Right Campus'.
21. For clarification, mails will be received from which email ID? Who will receive these emails? For any clarification from the HQ, mails will be received from eatright-campus@fssai.gov.in. Mails will only be sent to the person whose details are provided during the registration (i.e., a campus nodal officer/ implementation partner as mentioned in Q No. 6)
22. Where can we find the recommendation proforma?
The proforma for recommendation can be found under the resources tab.
23. Whose signatures are required on the recommendation proforma?
The recommendation proforma needs to be signed by the Designated Officer (DO)/ FSO or FSSAI officials. In case of CSR projects and/or if the implementation partner is other than FDA/ FSSAI/ any other government authority, the audit partners are authorized to sign the recommendation letter/proforma and upload it for Eat Right Campus certification.