Selling food from home in India: FSSAI and GST rules

By the Sellly team · Published 2 Oct 2026 · 5 min read

To sell food you make at home in India, you need an FSSAI registration before your first sale, whatever your turnover. Since 1 April 2026, that basic registration covers food businesses selling up to ₹1.5 crore a year (the limit used to be ₹12 lakh). Most home food businesses don’t need GST registration until their sales pass the limit for their state, unless they send food to another state. Food you pack in advance also needs a proper label. That’s the whole list for most home bakers, tiffin services and snack makers; the rest of this guide explains each part.

The rules as we found them on 2 Oct 2026, with sources at the end. This isn’t legal advice: for your situation, ask a chartered accountant or your district’s food safety officer.

FSSAI: who needs it

Every food business in India must be registered or licensed by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), under section 31 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. A food business is anyone who makes, cooks, packs, stores, sells or delivers food for sale. That includes a home kitchen, a tiffin service run from a flat and a baker who takes orders on Instagram. There’s no lower limit: a registration is needed even for the first ₹500 order.

Registration or licence: the limits since 1 April 2026

FSSAI revised its turnover limits by an order of 13 March 2026, after the Licensing and Registration Amendment Regulations were notified on 10 March 2026. Many guides online still quote the old ₹12 lakh limit.

Two exceptions matter for home food businesses. Caterers need at least a State licence, whatever their turnover. Anyone who imports food needs a Central licence. The 2026 amendment also allows registrations and licences without an end date; check the fee and the validity you’re offered on FoSCoS when you apply.

How to apply for FSSAI registration

1. Go to FoSCoS, FSSAI’s portal at foscos.fssai.gov.in, and choose a new registration.
2. Pick your kind of business (for example, a home-based food business, a manufacturer of bakery products, or a caterer) and your state.
3. Fill in Form A with your name, the address you cook at and what you make. Keep a photo, an identity proof and proof of that address ready to upload.
4. Pay the fee and submit. The food safety officer may inspect before granting it.
5. Show the number. Put your 14-digit registration number on your labels, your store page and your bills.

FSSAI asks platforms that take food orders online to show each seller’s number, so expect to be asked for it.

GST: when it applies

GST registration isn’t needed until your yearly sales pass the limit for your state, with one big exception: sending goods to a customer in another state.

• Sending taxable goods to another state makes registration compulsory, whatever your sales (section 24 of the CGST Act). A baker in Hyderabad who couriers a hamper to Bengaluru has made an interstate supply.
• Selling through your own WhatsApp number doesn’t change any of this: you aren’t selling through an e-commerce operator that collects payments for you.
• Registering early is allowed, and some businesses do it to sell to other businesses. It brings returns to file every month or quarter.

Labels for food you pack in advance

Food packed before anyone orders it and sold in that pack (sealed packets of namkeen, jars of pickle, boxes of cookies on a shelf) is a pre-packaged commodity. Its label needs the details the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011 ask for, including your name and address, what it is, the net quantity, the maximum retail price, the month and year it was packed, and how to reach you with a complaint. FSSAI’s labelling rules add the ingredients, the veg or non-veg mark, a best-before date and your FSSAI number. The same packaging rules ask anyone who packs goods for sale to register as a packer with their state’s Legal Metrology department. Whether food you make to order counts as pre-packaged depends on how you sell it; if you’re unsure, ask your state’s Legal Metrology office.

What you probably don’t need

• A company or a partnership. Most home businesses are sole proprietorships, which need no registration of their own.
• Udyam registration. It’s free and useful for some government schemes and loans, but not required to sell.
• A trade licence or shop registration, at home. These are state and municipal rules, usually for shops and premises. Check with your municipality if you open a kitchen or a counter outside home.

A checklist

• FSSAI registration, with the number on your labels and store page
• Your state’s GST limit noted, and GST registration if you send food to other states
• Labels on anything you pack before it’s ordered
• A note of your yearly sales, so you know when a limit is near

When a food business signs up to Sellly, its legal check asks a few questions (your state, rough sales, what you make and whether you send food to other states), works out the same answers as this guide, and asks for the FSSAI number and certificate before the store goes live. See how it works for home bakers, sweets, snacks and home food and tiffin services.

Sources

• FSS (Licensing and Registration of Food Businesses) Amendment Regulations, 2026, notified 10 Mar 2026 (FSSAI)
• Kind of business eligibility, revised 2 Apr 2026 (FSSAI (FoSCoS))
• FoSCoS: apply for FSSAI registration or a licence (FSSAI)
• FSSAI revises turnover limits to reduce compliance burden on small food businesses (Taxguru (secondary))
• Notification 10/2019-Central Tax: the ₹40 lakh threshold for suppliers of goods (GST Council)
• CGST Act 2017, section 24: when registration is compulsory (CBIC)
• Registration under GST law (GST Council)
• Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011 (Department of Consumer Affairs)

Related

• Home bakers and cake studiosFor home bakers and cake studios in India: customers order from your menu or ask for a custom cake in your WhatsApp chat, choose pickup or delivery and pay by UPI. Every order and payment lands on one list.
• Sweets, snacks and home foodFor home kitchens in India selling sweets, namkeen, pickles and snacks: customers order packs from your WhatsApp chat and pay by UPI before you pack, and you deliver from one list of paid orders.
• Tiffin services and meal plansFor tiffin services and meal plans in India: customers choose a plan and a start date in your WhatsApp chat, pay for the period, pause or skip a day themselves, and you see who to cook for each day.
• How to take orders on WhatsAppThree ways a business can take orders on WhatsApp, what to set up before the first one, how to take UPI payments without mix-ups, and when to move from chats to a system.