The Food Safety Act Revolution
Food Safety Act has gone through lots of changes since past many years. FSSAI that is Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has brought revolution to food safety standards in India. It is now the regulatory body of Food Safety and Standards Act empowered by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. There was an immense need to do alteration and modification in Food Safety Act for food and safety. If the people of our country do not have access to good quality food products then there is no point working so hard for the development of nation. Food Safety Act is applicable to all the food business operators in India and also to that business from whom food is importing to the country.
Food Safety Act has become mandatory the law per the food safety management system says that all the food business operators viz importers, distributors, manufacturers, hotels, eateries, distributors, wholesalers, restaurants, retailers along with the small food business should have Food Safety License / Registration. Having this license gives the food operator a legal entity.
New draft Regulations of Food Laws in India –
FSSAI is the regulating authority for all the laws relating to Food Safety and Standards Regulations. The existing body of food laws in India was FSS and the governing section 22 of FSS act – it deals in Nutraceuticals, Functional Food, Novel Foods and Health Supplements. The prior Food Safety Act came to an end on 26th August by FSSAI, and the primary and significant changes were done mainly in Section 22 of the FSSAI act.
The newly drafted regulations of Food Safety Act are as follow
- The nutritional and medical benefits should be added with scientific evidence.
- It should not contain steroids or psychotropic drugs.
- Ingredients must match with the dietary allowances of Indian.
The general requirements of for packaging and labelling of food products in India as per Food Safety and Standards Act –
- The information provided on the product packaging must be either in English, Hindi or Devanagari script. In addition to the languages mentioned above, other languages can be a consideration.
- The food products which are pre-packed shall not provide false, misleading information, likely to create an erroneous impression or deceptive about the character of the product.
- The label provided on the pre-packaged food shall not be provided separately from the container.
- Entire content mentioned on the label shall be clear and readily legible by the consumers in ordinary circumstances.
- Wherein the container is wrapped in a wrapper or with a label; it shall contain all the necessary information and shall be readable through the outer wrapper as well.
Apart from the above mentioned Food Safety Act Law; there are come additional Food and Safety Regulations as well. Lets check it out –
Every label on the food product shall contain the following information as per Food Safety and Standards Act
- Name of the food
- List of ingredients
- Vegetarian and non-vegetarian declaration
- Net quantity
- Name and address of the manufacturer
- Lot/Batch or Code identification
- Manufacturing or packaging date
- Expiry/Best before or Use before the date
- Instructions for use
- Country of origin for imported food
A large number of food products are imported in India; there is a great need to follow the Food and Safety Laws.
Here are some of the Food Safety and Standards Regulations for packaging and labelling for import of food products
- The language used for labels must be in English.
- A proper symbol must be affixed to the package about whether the product is vegetarian and non-vegetarian.
- Importer complete name along with the address should be mentioned
- Manufacturer’s full name along with the address should be specified
- Net weight or number or volume of content should be indicated
- Batch/Lot/Code number along with FSSAI license number should be mentioned
- Manufactured date in the form of month and year should be mentioned on the product
- Best before date or expiry date should be mentioned
- Nutritional information or nutritional facts should be mentioned. It should be mentioned as in 100gms or 100ml per serving of the food.
- FSSAI logo and license number should be mentioned on the product label.
What is the impact of new changes made under Food Safety and Standards Act?
Due to changes made in Food Safety and Standards Act many global manufacturing giants are suffering a significant loss. There are many reasons for such negative impacts for the manufacturing unit. Let us discuss the most important ones.
- If any product does not contain all the necessary ingredients or fails to add artificial flavours etc; then the particular product will not be allowed to enter the Indian market.
- The industries which are suffering the maximum are the chocolate and alcoholic beverage. The reason is sometimes it gets difficult to mention all the ingredient, volume, flavours, preservatives etc. Under one packaging. Hence, these products are not allowed to sell in India.
- Now the next step taken by Food Safety and Standards Act is that every food product that is imported in India must contain inseparable labels and not stickers. If the same is not followed the outcome strictly is identical.
- Use of English language has been mandatory for every product that has been coming to India for sale purpose has forced many Chinese and Japanese companies to take a step back. It is because the manufactured products are described in their language as a result of which the consumers are not at all read or understand the product.
The laws made by food safety management system are purely for the food and safety whereas, on the other hand, we can also clearly understand why so many companies are withdrawing from the Indian market.
If you are still confused or want to get registered with food safety management system then just fill up the form and provide the necessary details along with scanned documents. Legal Sahayak will do the needful. We are a team of experienced lawyers, Chartered Accountants and technology experts who will benefit you with best solutions for Food Safety and Standards Regulations.
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