Nikita, the short version: food businesses in India operate under the FSSAI framework, and the tier you fall into is driven by annual turnover. Small operations, including most home-based bakeries starting out, fall under Basic Registration, with the Basic tier applying up to ₹1.5 crore of annual turnover as of April 2026. Above that you move into the licence tiers.
We would encourage you strongly to register rather than to look for reasons not to. Sneha is right that it opens up order types that are otherwise closed to you, and the cost and effort at the Basic tier are not the obstacle people imagine.
Two practical notes. Requirements and thresholds do change, so verify current specifics against the official FSSAI portal or a professional before you file rather than relying on any forum post, including this one. And keep your registration details, kitchen hygiene practices and labelling consistent with what you have registered — that consistency matters more in practice than the certificate itself.
We cover compliance and setup as part of the business side of our programme, because a technically brilliant bakery that cannot legally take a corporate order is a hobby with extra steps.
