FSSAI settles the clash over “Curd” and “Dahi”

Vide a notification dated January 11th, 2023, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (“FSSAI”) had notified provisions for omission of the term “Curd” from the Standards of Fermented Milk Products and vide its subsequent order the said term was replaced with the word “Dahi”.

FSSAI informed that it had received many representations on the omission of the term “Curd”, from the Standards of Fermented Milk Products.

The grievances were mainly raised by non-Hindi speaking states of India, wherein using of the Hindi word “Dahi” would have created further confusion in the minds of the consumer and hence, various representations were filed before the authority to rectify the said confusion.

Taking into consideration the said representations, FSSAI has withdrawn its aforementioned notification/order which stated that state-owned dairy product manufacturers should label curd with the Hindi word “Dahi”.

A press release has been issued by the FSSAI stating that when term “Curd” was written along with “Dahi” in the ‘General Standard for Milk and Milk Products’ under the ‘Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011’, it was restricting its use for non-dairy products. To settle the grievances, it has been decided that FBOs may use the term Curd along with any other designation (prevalent regional common name) in brackets on the label, which includes now read “Curd (Dahi)”, “Curd (Mosaru)”, “Curd (Zaamut daud)”, “Curd (Thayir)” and “Curd (Perugu)”, etc.

This move from the authority has been welcomed by all the states in large and finally ended widely debated controversy.

Caution against the misleading health claim advertisements

The false and misleading claims by businesses through advertisement, are regulated by FSSAI under the ‘Food Safety and Standards (Advertisements & Claims) Regulations, 2018’ and are made punishable offence under Section 53 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 (“FSS Act”).

A committee, in the name of the ‘Advertising Monitoring Committee’, has been formed by FSSAI under the said regulations. The authority is mainly involved in identifying false and misleading advertisements. The said authority has recently been acquainted with numerous new misleading advertisements. Recently a huge controversy had begun with the questions raised on social media about the legitimacy and health benefits of a powdered drink with high sugar content. The authority while referring to various media reports, is set in to investigate the matter of health claims by packaged food makers.

The Committee has found 32 new misleading advertisements in violation of Deceptive claims which are punishable under Section 52 of the FSS Act. The licensing authorities have further issued notices to ensure strict compliance, failing which the Food Business Operators (“FBOs”) can be penalised with a fine extending up to Rs 10 lakh. To maximize enforcement, licensing authorities have been directed to issue notices against all businesses promoting misleading health claims against their products.

The regulator aims that all the FBOs must strictly adhere to the provisions of the Food Safety and Standards (Advertisements and Claims) Regulations, 2018 and discontinue from making any unscientific and/or exaggerated claims and advertisements to promote their product sales.

Such actions are much needed in today’s time, as people are nowadays becoming more health cautious and such misleading advertisements concerning health drink made for children may cause irreparable harm to the health of children/adults.

Food safety on wheels (FSW)

Keeping in mind the adulteration of milk, FSSAI has asked states and union territories to deploy mobile testing vans to check for milk adulteration and quality. The mobile testing vans are called “Food Safety on Wheels”. According to the reports, these mobile testing vans can do on-the-spot-testing of all types of milk and other dairy products.

On March 4th, 2023, an order was issued by FSSAI, to deploy 168 (Nos) testing vans in furtherance of its objective to prevent the adulteration. The vans employ on-the-spot food testing of all types of milk and other dairy products to carry out testing of at least 10 samples daily. The Milk-o-Screen system installed at mobile testing vans can test for fats, solid-not-fat, protein, adulterants like added water, urea, sucrose, maltodextrin, and ammonium sulphate.

This move will certainly help the authorities to prevent milk adulteration up to a great extent. 

Standard for millets

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has specified a comprehensive group standard for millets vide Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Second Amendment Regulations, 2023 notified in the Gazette of India and the same will be enforced from September 1st, 2023.

FSSAI has released its first Compendium on Millet Standards at the Global Millet (Sri Anna) Conference vide the ‘Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Second Amendment Regulation, 2023’. The standards envisage to get better value realisation, brand building and improved quality.

A group of small-grained cereal food crops that are highly tolerant to drought and other extreme weather conditions are called as Millets. The Millets requires low chemical inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides and most of millet crops are native of India. They provide most of the nutrients required for normal functioning of human body.

FSSAI has framed a comprehensive group standard for 15 types of millets specifying 8 quality parameters i.e., maximum limits for moisture content, uric acid content, extraneous matter, other edible grains, defects, weevilled grains, and immature and shrivelled grains, so as to ensure availability of good quality (standardized) millets in domestic and global markets.

Check on the quality and safety of the supplements and nutraceuticals

The FSSAI is considering releasing a standard operating procedure (SOP) or guidelines on usage of health supplements and nutraceuticals.  This step is taken after noticing that various nutraceuticals and health supplements sold in the market are either non-compliant or sold with false and or exaggerated claims.  

The FSSAI has directed the State Food Safety Commissioners to undertake a special enforcement drive to check on the quality and safety of the supplements and nutraceuticals. The FSSAI will soon release its Standard Operating Procedures (‘SOP’) or guidelines on usage of health supplements and nutraceuticals. 

These regulations will benefit the nutraceutical sector to have clear guidelines and will also enable field functionaries to ensure better compliance at the ground level. FSSAI is intending to create awareness amongst the consumer about the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RAD) alongside strict surveillance about the quantity and quality of the products which would ensure a safe and healthy living sphere.

Order seeking enforcement of Plastic Waste Management Rule,2016

On June 16th, 2023, FSSAI released an order in reference drawn to the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change. 

The Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change has notified the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021, which prohibits the manufacturing, Import, stocking, distribution, sale, and use of single-use plastic items. 

Under this order a duty is casted upon the Food Safety Officers and Designated Officers of their respective jurisdictions to ensure the effective compliance with the issued rule.

Tea manufacturing FBOs receive an extension to sell old packaging

Vide an Office Order dated April 13th, 2023, FSSAI has granted the Tea Manufacturing FBOs/estates an extension to continue using old, pre-printed bulk tea packaging materials. This extension has been granted after receiving representations from various tea estates and the Indian Tea Associations.

Numerous representations were made before the authorities that the month of January and February are tea industry’s off-season months and hence the previously given extension was not helpful. Also, various tea estates and FBOs had requested for an extension, owing to financial constraints and the need to use their existing inventory of pre-printed packaging material.

Considering the above requests, vide the aforementioned Office Order, FSSAI has granted the tea manufacturing FBOs and estates, who had already been granted approval letters for the utilization of pre-printed packaging material, an extension. The tea manufacturing FBOs and estates who had already been granted approval letters for the utilization of pre-printed packaging material for a period of three months can now use the packaging for an additional six months from the date of issuance of the approval letter. After this office order the tea FBOs/estates can continue using old, pre-printed bulk tea packaging materials for the extended time.

This extension by FSSAI has received huge appreciation from the tea industry, with many stakeholders expressing their gratitude for the extension. This move is expected to benefit the small tea growers and manufacturers and save packaging cost to a large extent.

Extension of time for giving effect to the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Amendment Rules, 2021

The Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011 were amended in 2021 vide GSR 779 (E) dated November 2nd, 2021, for ease of doing business and for safeguarding the interest of consumers. The amended rules were called as ‘The Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Amendment Rules, 2021. The said Amendment Rules were published in the Gazette of India and were decided to be implemented from April 1st, 2022.

The date of implementation had been extended multiple times and once again vide Notification bearing No. G.S.R. 214 (E) dated 24th March 2023 the effective date was changed to June 1st, 2023. However, vide a subsequent Notification No. G.S.R 412 (E) dated June 5th, 2023, the effective date is now 1st day of July 2023.

Clarification on ‘non-applicability’ of ‘The Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011’

Rule 3 of the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011, deals with the cases which do not fall within the purview of the Rules.

The aforementioned rules do not apply to the following cases wherein (i) packaged commodities contain quantity of more than 25 kilogram or 25 litre (ii) cement, fertilizer and agricultural farm produce sold in bags above 50 kilogram and (iii) packaged commodities meant for industrial consumers and institutional consumers.

A clarificatory intimation has been issued by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Department under its intimation dated March 6th, 2023, bearing Number as I-10/9/2023-W&M, to all the concerned Collectors of Legal Metrology. The said intimation clarifies that the packages of agriculture farm produce containing quantity up to 50 kg are covered under the Legal Metrology (packaged Commodity) Rules, 2011. Therefore, the manufacturers/packers/importers of these packages are allowed to pack in any quantity up to 50 kg as per the said rules.

The above needs to be noted and acted upon by all the manufacturers/packers/importers dealing with the packages containing cement, fertilizer and agricultural farm produce up to 50 kg and comply with the requirements as stipulated under the said rules.