- Food Safety and Standards Authority(FSSAI) has announced the new draft Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations.
- The new draft regulation has been brought to encourage consumers to make healthier food choices and inform them about what the product actually contains.
- These regulations would be implemented in phased manner over a period of three years.
- The draft proposal makes it mandatory for food products that are high on fat,sugar and salt content levels to display red-colour coding on their labels.
- The front of all packaged food items will have to display the total number of calories,saturated and trans fats,salt and added sugar content as well as the proportion of the daily energy needs fulfilled by food item.
- The draft regulations also propose labelling requirements for food products sold on e-commerce platforms and restaurants and stricter norms for products that claim to be gluten-free.
- The other features of the new labelling norms are (a)mandatory labelling regarding allergens,vegetarian and non-vegetarian foods (b)New logos for vegetarian and non-vegetarian foods (c)Food not meant for human consumption shall bear an [X] mark and (d)manufacturing and expiry dates have to be printed together at one place.
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