In the last few years, with the onset of programs like “Digital India”, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has taken a carefully designed approach to reform its operational processes, aiming to improve the business regulatory environment. They have set up standards for food products and aligned them with international standards to ensure that Indian consumers have access to safe and hygienic food. In recent times they have introduced innovative and efficient use of technology, to ensure transparency through paperless transactions. In this context, the FSSAI has introduced 28+ micro sites/portals catering to specific use cases around the food operations to improve the ease of doing business and reduce the compliance burden through the use of technology. These efforts have resulted in gains for India in terms of improvements in the World Bank’s overall Ease of Doing Business rankings but there is scope for further improvement. Despite the improvements, regulatory compliance with the FSSAI is an issue and this is impeding food business operators (FBOs) in the country from operating with ease in the market. In this regard, the report based on secondary information analysis and a primary survey tries to understand how FSSAI can efficiently use information technology to ensure effective enforcement of food safety regulations and standards, improve ease of doing business, enhance operational efficiency of the FSSAI, help food businesses to effectively use the registration and compliance systems and reduce the compliance burden for FBOs. This manual is based on the premise that in a modern globalised world, food safety systems/processes should be technology driven. The manual recommends that technology should be used to improve co-ordination across FSSAI offices, and businesses can engage better with FSSAI to improve through improved compliance of food safety regulations. Also given the quasi-federal nature of governance in India, technology can be used to achieve FSSAI’s objective of “one country one law”. The recommendations in this manual will aid the FSSAI in reducing compliance burden and enhancing ease of doing business by reducing the procedural barriers, implementing technology and automation-oriented solutions that can help resolve some of the structural bottlenecks in the existing system and it will put India on the path to achieve its desired rank in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index. less Contents in Detail List of Tables and Figures Foreword Acknowledgement List of Abbreviations 1. Introduction 2. Objective 2.1 Methodology 3. Recommended IT Initiatives 3.1 Food Approval 3.2 Food Licensing and Registration 3.3 Packaging and Labelling 3.4 Food Safety and Compliance 3.5 Food Recalls 3.6 FBO and Partner Effectiveness 3.7 Communication 3.8 Escalation Model 3.9 Use of “FSSAI Facilitator” by FBOs 3.10 Quasi-Federal Model 3.11 Improvement of Ratings 4. Target Architecture for Data Sources 4.1 Background 4.2 Core Components of the Architecture 4.3 Operational Components of the Architecture 4.4 Information Engine Components of the Architecture 4.5 Underlying Applications 4.6 Unified Communication Platform 4.7 Websites 4.8 Risk Management System at the Core 5. Other Initiatives to Strengthen Processes 5.1 Food Recall 5.2 Blockchain-based Traceability 6. Way Forward 6.1 Recommendations 6.2 Capacity Building in FSSAI References Annexure