FSSAI license check: verify a food business licence online

The quick answer

To do an FSSAI license check, open FSSAI's FoSCoS portal (foscos.fssai.gov.in), go to FBO Search, and enter either the 14-digit licence or registration number or the business name with its state and district, then the captcha. The result comes from FSSAI's own records, so compare it with the certificate you were shown: the name, the address, the kind of business and whether the licence is still in force. A number printed on a label or a PDF certificate proves nothing until it matches FoSCoS.

Two things changed in 2026 that most pages about FSSAI checks still miss. From 1 April 2026, licences and registrations issued have perpetual validity (they stay valid unless suspended, cancelled or surrendered), and the turnover limits moved: registration now covers food businesses with turnover up to ₹1.5 crore, a State licence up to ₹50 crore, and a Central licence above that. This guide shows the check step by step, how to read what you find, how to spot a fake or borrowed number, and how a distributor, supplier or platform can check many food businesses at once.

How to check an FSSAI licence on FoSCoS, step by step

FSSAI's own License Verification page describes the service as a public FoSCoS facility that helps "consumers, businesses and authorities check the authenticity/status of an FSSAI licence or registration", and sends you to FoSCoS for the search itself. FoSCoS (Food Safety Compliance System) is the portal where food businesses apply for, modify and hold their licences, so it is the one source that is always current.

1. Open FoSCoS. Go to foscos.fssai.gov.in. On the home page, under the licence and registration tabs, choose FBO Search (FBO means food business operator).
2. Search by number if you have it. Type the 14-digit number into the box labelled "License/Registration Certificate No." Copy it from the certificate rather than from a label photo, where a 6 and an 8 are easy to confuse.
3. Or search by name. If you only know the business, enter its name in "Company Name" and pick the state and, if you know it, the district. A partial name helps when the legal name differs from the shop or brand name.
4. Type the captcha and press Search. The portal asks for a captcha on every search, which is why checking hundreds of numbers by hand is slow (see the bulk section below).
5. Open the matching record and compare it with the certificate. Check the name, the premises address, the kind of business (manufacturer, wholesaler, distributor, retailer, caterer and so on), whether it is a registration, a State licence or a Central licence, and its status.
6. Note the date and save the result. Keep a screenshot or a print to PDF with the date in your supplier file. If a dispute or a food safety complaint comes up later, you can show you checked.

The same FBO Search area has other searches that help business buyers: a "Commodity, Category or Area Specific Search", an "Endorsement Search", a "Production Capacity and Quantity produced search", a search for fortified rice kernel manufacturers, an "E-Commerce FBO Search" and a "Search Manufactures" option. For consumers, the home page also offers "Retailers near me", "Caterers near me" and "Restaurants near me". If the portal is down or a result looks wrong, FSSAI's helpline is 1800-11-2100 (9 am to 6 pm) and the FoSCoS help desk email is helpdesk-foscos@fssai.gov.in.

Do not confuse the licence number with an application reference number. A business that has only applied gets a reference number to track its application under "Track Application" on FoSCoS. That shows an application was filed, not that a licence was granted, so ask for the granted certificate before you treat a new supplier as licensed.

Registration, State licence or Central licence: which one should the business have?

An FSSAI check is only half done if the number is genuine but of the wrong kind. A food manufacturer turning over ₹80 crore that shows you a basic registration is not properly licensed, even though FoSCoS will happily find its registration. So after you find the record, check that the category fits the business.

FSSAI's order of 13 March 2026 on revised turnover thresholds replaced the old limits from 1 April 2026. It says it "supersedes all other earlier orders and regulations with respect to turnover thresholds". The fees below are the yearly fees in FSSAI's Kind of Business eligibility table (updated 1 April 2026) for most kinds of business, such as manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, storage and restaurants:

Category	Annual turnover (from 1 April 2026)	Fee per year (most kinds of business)	Who grants it
FSSAI registration	Up to ₹1.5 crore	₹100 (no fee for hawkers since 28 September 2024)	The registering authority under the State food safety department
State licence	Above ₹1.5 crore and up to ₹50 crore	₹5,000	The State licensing authority
Central licence	Above ₹50 crore, and some activities at any turnover (next table)	₹7,500	FSSAI's central licensing authority

Some activities need a Central licence whatever the turnover. The eligibility table lists, among others:

Kind of business	Licence needed	Why it matters to a buyer
Importer of food	Central licence, no turnover limit	Imported food on an Indian shelf should carry the importer's FSSAI logo and licence number with its name and address
E-commerce food business	Central licence, no turnover limit	A platform listing food sellers should hold its own Central licence, separate from its sellers' licences
Trader or merchant exporter, and manufacturer for export	Central licence, no turnover limit	An export house that buys from you should have a Central licence for that activity
Head office of a business working in two or more states	Central licence, no turnover limit	A multi-state chain or distributor declares one head office, which holds a Central licence alongside its premises' licences
Storage, wholesale, distribution or retail at an airport or seaport	Central licence, no turnover limit	Common for duty-free, in-flight and port warehouse suppliers
Caterer	State licence up to ₹50 crore, Central above	A caterer should not be working on a basic registration, whatever its size

Two practical points. First, the turnover limits are self-declared by the business, so a registration is not proof that turnover is below ₹1.5 crore; it is the business's own statement. If your supplier invoices you more than ₹1.5 crore a year by itself, a registration should make you ask questions. Second, each premises matters: the licensing regulations require a true copy of the licence to be displayed "at a prominent place" in the premises where the business is carried on, and the licence names its premises. A distributor with three godowns should be able to show you which licence covers the godown your stock comes from.

What changed in 2026, and what "validity check" now means

The Food Safety and Standards (Licensing and Registration of Food Businesses) Amendment Regulations, 2026 were notified on 10 March 2026. FSSAI's FAQs on the 2026 amendment (27 March 2026) list four reforms: perpetual validity of licences and registrations, deemed registration of street food vendors already registered under the Street Vendors Act, 2014, a risk-based inspection framework, and the new turnover thresholds above. For anyone checking a supplier, these answers matter most:

• Perpetual validity. Licences and registrations "will remain valid, unless suspended, cancelled or surrendered", and businesses "are not required to renew". The FAQ says any licence or registration issued on or after 1 April 2026 has perpetual validity. Businesses still pay the yearly fee, and may pay for any number of years at once.
• The number stays the same. If a business moves from a Central to a State licence, or from a State licence to registration, because of the new limits, its licence number does not change. The move is made automatically by the system on the business's self-declaration, with no approval from the licensing authority, and no modification fee.
• States now handle almost everyone. FSSAI says that after these reforms more than 98% of food businesses will fall under the State government's supervision for monitoring and inspection.
• High-risk food keeps its rules. Businesses making dairy products, meat, packaged drinking water, infant food and fish products still have to meet the hygiene, safety and testing requirements, even if they now only need a registration.

What this means for an "FSSAI license validity check": an expiry date printed on an older certificate no longer tells you everything, and a certificate with no expiry date is not suspicious in itself. What counts is the status on FoSCoS today. If a certificate issued before April 2026 shows an expiry date that has passed, check FoSCoS: the business may have renewed, moved to the new regime, or let the licence lapse. FSSAI has also made it mandatory for businesses to submit a closure report when a licence or registration expires, according to a notice on the FoSCoS home page. A licence that is suspended or cancelled is the one to act on: stop buying until the business shows a fresh licence.

Another consequence: many businesses that held a State licence under the old limits may now hold a registration after migration, and that is correct. Some FoSCoS screens and many older articles still quote the previous registration limit of ₹12 lakh turnover, so do not treat a ₹1 crore business with a registration as non-compliant on that basis.

Real or fake: how to spot a forged or borrowed FSSAI number

The common problems are not elaborate forgeries. They are borrowed numbers (a trader printing a manufacturer's licence number on its own packs), expired or cancelled licences still printed on old stock, application numbers passed off as licences, and registrations used for businesses that need a licence. This checklist catches most of them:

Check	What a genuine licence looks like	Warning sign
The number on FoSCoS	FBO Search finds the same 14-digit number	No record found, or the number has fewer or more digits
The name	Matches the legal name on the invoice or GST registration, or the brand owner on the label	A different company's name, so the number may be borrowed
The address	The premises on FoSCoS is the factory, godown or outlet you deal with	A different city or state from where the goods come from
The kind of business	Fits what they do: manufacturer, relabeller, repacker, wholesaler, distributor, importer, caterer	A "retailer" registration on a business that manufactures or imports
The category	Registration, State or Central licence that fits turnover and activity (tables above)	An importer or e-commerce seller with a State licence or registration
The status	Active, with no suspension or cancellation	Suspended, cancelled or surrendered
The document	A licence certificate issued through FoSCoS	Only an application reference number, or a certificate that cannot be found on FoSCoS

Cross-check with the GST record too. The GST portal shows a GSTIN's legal and trade name, status and principal place of business to anyone; our guide to company search in India explains the MCA, GST, IEC and Udyam look-ups, and the GST data provider guide explains exactly what the GST portal shows without a login. When the FSSAI name, the GST name and the invoice name all match, you can be fairly sure you are dealing with the business you think you are.

Where the FSSAI number has to appear: labels, premises and online listings

You will usually find the number before anyone hands you a certificate, because the law requires it to be shown. FSSAI's Labelling and Display Regulations, 2020 set out where:

• On the pack. The FSSAI logo and licence number must be on the label "in contrast color to the background", in the format "Lic. No." followed by the number. The brand owner's licence number has to be shown, and if the product is made, marketed, packed or bottled by someone else, that business's licence number must be shown as well. So a pack with two numbers is normal; check both.
• On imported food. The importer must show the FSSAI logo and licence number along with its name and address.
• At the premises. "Every food business operator shall display on all its premises, where food is stored, processed, distributed or sold, the Registration/Licence No." at a prominent place. The licensing regulations add that small (petty) food businesses get a registration certificate and a photo identity card, to be displayed where they sell or make food, including a vehicle or cart.
• Non-retail containers. Bulk packs not meant for sale to consumers must still carry the name of the food, net quantity, FSSAI logo and licence number, date marking, lot number and the manufacturer's or packer's name and address.
• Online. FSSAI's order of 18 March 2026 on e-commerce food businesses says e-commerce entities that list food businesses or food products and facilitate orders need a Central licence. On ONDC, from 1 April 2026, the seller app must provide the licence or registration information and is responsible for its accuracy, and the buyer app must display it.

For a buyer, this gives a quick first check without any login: read the number off a pack, a shop's display board or a marketplace listing, then look it up on FoSCoS. If the brand owner's number on a pack belongs to a different company than the one invoicing you, ask whose goods they are.

Checking many FSSAI licences: distributors, suppliers and platforms

A distributor onboarding 200 retailers, a packaging company qualifying food makers, or a cloud-kitchen platform listing restaurants cannot type 200 captchas a day. A practical routine:

1. Collect the number at onboarding. Put "FSSAI licence or registration number" and "kind of business" on your vendor or customer form, next to the GSTIN and PAN. Our vendor registration guide has a full list of what approved-supplier forms ask for.
2. Ask for the certificate, not just the number. It shows the premises and the kind of business, which you need to judge whether the category fits.
3. Check new partners on FoSCoS before the first order, and re-check existing ones on a schedule: high-risk categories (dairy, meat, fish, infant food, packaged water) more often than dry goods.
4. For volume, consider a verification API, and test it first. Several identity-verification companies sell FSSAI look-up APIs that return the licence details inside your own software. Before relying on one, check ten numbers on FoSCoS and on the API and compare every field, and ask how often its data is refreshed.
5. Record the result. Keep the date checked, the status found and who checked it in your vendor master. A licence that was valid when you checked protects you far better than one you assumed.

The labelling rules also put a duty on whoever sells the food. If you sell under your own brand and have it made by a contract manufacturer, your licence and theirs both appear on the pack, so the contract manufacturer's status is your problem too. Licensed manufacturers and importers also file annual returns with FSSAI, so a manufacturer you audit should be able to show its latest one.

Food businesses in Starleads' data, and how to reach them

If you check FSSAI licences because you sell to food businesses (ingredients, packaging, equipment, cold chain, billing software, pest control, food testing), the next question is usually where to find more of them. Starleads sells ready-made Excel lists of Indian businesses by industry and city. The figures below are counts of contacts in Starleads' data on 7 November 2026, not an official census, and the lists do not carry FSSAI numbers: you check each business on FoSCoS yourself, as above.

List (All India)	Contacts	With a mobile number	With an email
Grocery & supermarkets	2,12,501	99%	5%
Restaurants, cafes & bars	1,44,421	92%	43%
Food & beverage (all industries)	67,960	84%	34%
Bakeries, cake & sweet shops	28,606	88%	25%
Caterers & catering services	22,815	90%	33%
Food processing & FMCG	18,029	69%	40%
Dairy & milk suppliers	12,222	92%	28%
Spices & dry fruits traders	5,798	85%	41%
Cold storage & warehouses	2,051	84%	46%

Restaurants are concentrated in a few metros: Starleads' Insights page counts 39,306 restaurants, cafes and bars in Mumbai, 13,771 in Bengaluru, 9,757 in Pune, 9,151 in Chennai and 8,929 in Hyderabad. Grocery stores are a calling list (almost every row has a mobile, very few an email), while restaurants and food processors can also be reached by email.

Live figures: our Food Processing & FMCG list has 18,029 contacts in 190 cities, 69% with a mobile number and 40% with an email, and it is also sold for 12 cities one by one.

Food processing and FMCG lists by city

• Mumbai 5,607 contacts · 22% email · 80% mobile ₹499
• Pune 1,553 contacts · 31% email · 84% mobile ₹499
• Bengaluru 1,317 contacts · 32% email · 96% mobile ₹499
• Jaipur 840 contacts · 15% email · 90% mobile ₹499
• Ahmedabad 532 contacts · 73% email · 86% mobile ₹499
• Chennai 528 contacts · 73% email · 6% mobile ₹499
• New Delhi 470 contacts · 77% email · 16% mobile ₹499
• Vadodara 328 contacts · 47% email · 53% mobile ₹499
• Kolkata 318 contacts · 86% email · 6% mobile ₹499
• Hyderabad 308 contacts · 70% email · 8% mobile ₹499
• Surat 292 contacts · 25% email · 84% mobile ₹499
• Ludhiana 282 contacts · 23% email · 85% mobile ₹499

Other food business lists

• Food Processing & FMCG 18,029 contacts · 40% email · 69% mobile ₹1,999
• Restaurants, Cafes & Bars 1,44,421 contacts · 43% email · 92% mobile ₹1,999
• Grocery & Supermarkets 2,12,501 contacts · 5% email · 99% mobile ₹1,999
• Bakeries, Cake & Sweet Shops 28,606 contacts · 25% email · 88% mobile ₹1,999
• Caterers & Catering Services 22,815 contacts · 33% email · 90% mobile ₹1,999
• Dairy & Milk Suppliers 12,222 contacts · 28% email · 92% mobile ₹1,999
• Spices & Dry Fruits Traders 5,798 contacts · 41% email · 85% mobile ₹499
• Cold Storage & Warehouses 2,051 contacts · 46% email · 84% mobile ₹499

Each list page shows 60 sample contacts and how many records have each detail, with a free Excel sample. A city or state list costs ₹499 and an industry's All-India file with 10,000 or more contacts ₹1,999, plus 18% GST. Contact details change, and nobody calls each contact before a list is sold, so check the sample first.

Reaching them lawfully: these are business contacts, but TRAI's rules still apply to promotional calls and SMS. Check numbers against the National Customer Preference Register (DND) before you call or text (our DND check guide shows how), send bulk SMS only through a DLT-registered header and template, say who you are, and stop when someone asks you to. For email, offer a clear unsubscribe and honour it. The restaurants database guide and the FMCG companies guide cover who sells to these businesses and how, and the distributor guide explains the licences, FSSAI among them, a food distributor needs.

Questions people ask

How do I check an FSSAI licence number online?

On foscos.fssai.gov.in, open FBO Search, enter the 14-digit number in "License/Registration Certificate No.", fill in the captcha and search. Compare the record's name, address, kind of business, category and status with the certificate you were given. FSSAI's own License Verification page points to the same FoSCoS facility.

Can I do an FSSAI license check by name?

Yes. In the same FBO Search, type the business name in "Company Name" and choose the state and district. Try a shorter part of the name if nothing comes up, because the legal name on the licence often differs from the shop or brand name.

How do I know if an FSSAI licence is real or fake?

A genuine number is found on FoSCoS, and the record's name and address match the business you are dealing with. If the number is not found, belongs to another company, shows a suspended or cancelled status, or is really an application reference number, treat it as not valid for your purposes and ask for the correct certificate.

How do I check FSSAI licence validity after the 2026 changes?

Look at the status on FoSCoS rather than a printed date. Licences and registrations issued from 1 April 2026 have perpetual validity: they stay valid unless suspended, cancelled or surrendered, though the business still pays a yearly fee. Older certificates may show an expiry date; if it has passed, FoSCoS will show whether the business has moved on or let it lapse.

What is the FSSAI license price for a business?

From FSSAI's eligibility table for most kinds of business: ₹100 a year for registration (turnover up to ₹1.5 crore), ₹5,000 a year for a State licence (above ₹1.5 crore up to ₹50 crore) and ₹7,500 a year for a Central licence. Some activities have different fees, and hawkers pay no registration fee.

Is there a free FSSAI verification API?

FSSAI's free route is the FoSCoS search, which needs a captcha for each look-up. Third-party verification companies sell API access; test any of them against FoSCoS on a handful of numbers before you build it into your onboarding.

Why does a food pack show two FSSAI numbers?

The Labelling and Display Regulations, 2020 require the brand owner's licence number on the label, plus the licence number of the manufacturer, marketer, packer or bottler if that is a different business. Both should be found on FoSCoS.

Does Starleads sell FSSAI licence data?

No. Starleads' food lists hold business contacts (name, contact person where known, phone numbers, email, address, city and PIN code), not FSSAI numbers or licence status. Check each business's licence on FoSCoS, which is the official record.