Food Product Labeling
As everybody is aware that “Food Labeling” serves as a primary link of communication between the manufacturer and consumer and covers both food safety and information of consumer interest. To make the national labeling regulations more robust and effective, FSSAI is in the process of comprehensive revision of Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labeling) Regulations, 2011 with the objective of having three different regulations dealing separately to packaging, labeling and Advertisement & claims requirements. In this series, two regulations namely “FSS Packaging) Regulations and FSS (Advertising and Claims) Regulations have been finalized and notified in the year 2018.
Now the FSSAI’s new Labeling and Display regulations is ready for draft notification. These regulations will supersede the Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labeling) Regulations, 2011.
The idea behind the new labeling regulations is to enable citizens to know more about the composition of food products, so that they can make informed choices. According to the proposed draft Food Safety and Standards (Labeling and Display) Regulations, the packaged food companies will need to declare nutritional information such as calories (energy), Saturated fat, trans-fat, added sugar and sodium per serve on the front of the pack. The food labels will also declare, per serve percentage contribution to RDA (recommended dietary allowance) on the front of the pack.
Other key features of these regulations are:
- Mandatory labeling requirements like information relating to allergens and logo of veg, non-veg food etc. for the prepared food as well.
- Nutritional information may additionally be provided in the form of Barcode/Global Trade Identification Number (GTIN).
- New logo for Vegetarian food which consists of a green colour filled triangle inside a square with green outline to enable the colour blind people a
- Every package of food material which is not meant for human consumption shall bear a [X] symbol so as to clearly distinguish the non-food grade items to food items.
- An internal mechanism to address the problem arising out of implementation/interpretation of the regulations.
As per the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011 certain mandatory declarations have to be made on every package, which are:
- Name and address of the manufacturer/ packer/ importer;
- Country of origin in case of imported packages
- Common or generic name of the commodity contained in the package;
- Net quantity, in terms of standard unit of weight or measure or in number;
- Month and year of manufacture/ pack/ import;
- Retail sale price in the form of Maximum Retail Price (MRP) Rs….. Inclusive of all taxes;
- Consumer care details.
Penalty for Misbranded label is upto Rs. 3 lacs.
To know more about labelling regulation, wish to confirm your existing packaging OR wish to confirm your new product packaging email us your artwork on expert@foodsafetystandard.in or please Chat with us Ask The Expert.
