In an attempt to drive transparency in the industry, enable the consumers to make informed choices, FSSAI has updated the labeling requirements for food products. The existing FSS (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations, 2011 is now split into two different regulations, namely:
- Food Safety and Standards (Packaging) Regulations, 2018
- Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2020
While the packaging regulation came into force in July 2019, labeling and display regulations have taken a little more time to get finalized.
The new labeling and display regulation where published vide a gazette notification dated 17th Nov 2020. It comes into force from the date of its publication. For existing manufacturers have until 1st Jan 2022 to comply with the regulations but considering the background work required to modify the labels and build the supply chain for the packaging material, this might not be too much.
There is an update to almost all the clauses of the erstwhile packaging and labeling regulations, but some of the clauses have been changed significantly. Some of the major changes done in the clauses pertaining to the labels of packaged food products are:
- Nutritional information (contribution to RDA, types of fats, carbohydrates, sodium)
- Non-veg logo (a brown triangle locked on a rectangle)
- Allergen declaration
- Date markings (mandatory mention of expiry date/ use by date)
This will require a detailed relook at all the labels and like we mentioned earlier 1 year may not be too long a time. We suggest you get started right away.
Changing the nutritional information, determining the expiry dates (instead of best before dates which meant the product is still safe to consume after this date) may require a systematic lab analysis. Some of the shelf-life studies might take months to complete.
The real work begins after that. Rewriting the text and aligning it with the creative team and proof-reading it thoroughly would require more than a single iteration.
As a team we have reviewed hundreds of labels and we cannot but reemphasize the importance of the timelines and compliance. We would highly recommend starting the work now, so that you can update your labels when you order your next batch. If you would like our help in reviewing your labels, please do reach out to us at fssai@foodsafetyworks.in
