Food Hygiene and Quality Act, 2024

Chapter-1
Preliminary

1. Short Title and Commencement: (1) This Act may be cited as the "Food Hygiene and Quality Act, 2081."

(2) This Act shall commence on the ninety-first day after the date of its certification. 2. Definitions: Unless the subject or context otherwise requires, in this Act,-

(a) "License" means a food business license pursuant to Section 9.

(b) "Office" means an office under the Department.

(c) "Food Inspection Officer" means a food inspection officer pursuant to Section 28.

(d) "Foodstuff" means unprocessed, semi-processed, or processed food or drink generally consumed by humans, nutrients used therein, food additives, or spices, and the term also includes dietary supplement foods, packaged processed drinking water, alcoholic beverages, chewing gum, and bubblegum.

(e) "Food Additive" means an approved edible substance used as an agent during the production, processing, and preservation of foodstuff in accordance with prescribed standards to maintain or enhance the color, aroma, taste, and achieve other desired qualities of the foodstuff, which is not directly consumed as food.

(f) "Food Business" means the act of producing, processing, preparing, packaging, storing, selling, distributing, exporting, or importing foodstuffs for commercial or public purposes, and the term also includes the act of selling or distributing foodstuffs by operating from a fixed place or building, or by moving on the street, or through online means using an electronic system, after producing, processing, preparing, or packaging them.

(g) "Food Business Operator" means a person engaged in a food business.

(h) "Food Hygiene" means the condition of being safe from a human health perspective during the preparation and intended use of foodstuffs.

(i) "Food Hygiene Management System" means Good Manufacturing Practices, Good Hygienic Practices, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point system necessary for maintaining food hygiene in a food business, and the term also includes other such practices prescribed for food hygiene management in a food business.

(j) "Food Chain" means the chain of service provision related to the production, processing, storage, transportation, sale, or distribution of foodstuffs using any goods, resources, means, or activities in a coordinated manner to deliver foodstuffs to consumers.

(k) "Quality" means the characteristic properties, standards, quantity, scope, and level of hygiene prescribed for a foodstuff.

(l) "Prescribed" or "as prescribed" means prescribed or as prescribed in the rules made under this Act.

(m) "Traceability" means the system of records tracing the sequence of the condition of a foodstuff through the stages of its production, processing, storage, export, import, and sale or distribution.

(n) "Packaging" means the act of filling, wrapping, capping, placing, or covering a foodstuff in any container, can, bottle, carton, box, cage, bag, film, plastic, or other such material.

(o) "Processing Aid" means a substance, other than mechanical equipment, used to facilitate a technical purpose, such as food processing or treatment, which is not directly used as a food ingredient.

(p) "Ministry" means the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, Government of Nepal.

(q) "Director General" means the Director General of the Department.

(r) "Label" means any information or details such as a barcode, QR code, tag, mark, picture, or other such sign or details affixed, written, printed, lithographed, marked, engraved, embossed, included, or placed in any other manner on the packaging, packet, or container covering of a packaged foodstuff.

(s) "Department" means the Department of Food Technology and Quality Control.

(t) "Committee" means the Food Hygiene and Quality Recommendation Committee pursuant to Section 5.

(u) "Ingredient" means items such as foodstuffs, nutrients, food additives, and spices used as raw materials in the production or preparation of a foodstuff.

(v) "Local Level" means a Rural Municipality or Municipality.

(w) "Service Provider" means a hotel, motel, lodge, restaurant, resort, or bar, and the term also includes a person providing food business services under any other name such as catering, canteen, diner, sweet shop, tea shop, or eatery that provides food or drink services.