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Packaged food companies must mandatorily display expiry date instead of “best before date”
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has laid out new labelling and display norms.
Date, Font, and Veg/Non-Veg classification: Packaged food companies must mandatorily display expiry date instead of “best before date”. The nutritional information on the principal display panel must be in bigger font sizes. Also, the veg/non-veg classification symbol must be on the front of the pack. All of this will take effect from January 1, 2022.
Children’s Age: For the first time, FSSAI has defined the age of children for the food industry as below 18 years.
E-commerce Food Products: Labelling regulations have also been laid out for the e-commerce food business operators and the restaurant industry as well. When a food item is sold through e-commerce or any other direct selling means, the mandatory requirements of the label shall be provided to the consumer before sale through appropriate means (except best before, batch number/ lot number, expiry date, use-by date, date of manufacturing/ packing)
The earlier proposed key provisions, however, regarding colour-coded labels to classify food products that are high in salt, fat and sugar and front-of-the-pack labelling are still not finalised.
Ashwin Bhadri, CEO of Equinox Labs said, “The way I see it, these norms will certainly help the consumers make informed decisions about what they buy or consume.”