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• The growing market for packaged food provides both opportunities and challenges to food processors, importers, food packagers, and labelers to respond to consumers’ requirements.
• Innovations in food product development, packaging, and labelling are becoming key factors for survival across the world.
• Therefore, product packaging and labelling have numerous important roles to play in the emerging market environment.
• Labelling is any written, electronic, or graphic communications on the packaging. A panel found on a package of food which contains a variety of information about the nutritional value of the food item.
• Consumers often compare prices of food items in the grocery store to choose the best value for money. But comparing items using the food label can help us choose the best value for our health.
• For example, someone with high blood pressure who needs to watch salt (sodium) intake may have a choice of five different types of tomato soup on the rack. One can quickly and easily compare the sodium content of each product by looking at the part of the label that lists nutrition information to choose the one with the lowest sodium content.
• It is quite evident that most of the quality properties of food products are credence characteristics, with effects that cannot be inferred before, or sometimes even after, consumption; these necessitate mandatory food safety regulations to alleviate risks and hazards.
• One of the most practical methods for addressing credence problems is proper food labelling coupled with an effective institutional arrangement for implementation and certification of food safety processes.
• To meet a country’s sanitary requirements, food must comply with the local laws and regulations to gain market access. These laws ensure the safety and suitability of food for consumers and also govern food quality and composition standards.
• The disclosure of information on food labels in India is primarily governed by the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act of 1954, which focuses mainly on basic product information with less emphasis on health and nutritional information.
• Recent amendments regarding packaging and labelling of food under part VII of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Rules of 1955 mandate the disclosure of health and nutritional claims on food labels along with basic information.
• The Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA) of 2006 aims at establishing a single reference point for all matters relating to food safety across the country, by moving from multilevel, multi departmental control to a single line of command.
• The Act develop science based standards for food and to regulate and monitor the manufacture, processing, storage, distribution, sale and import of food so as to ensure the availability of safe and wholesome food for human consumption.
• All food imports will therefore be subject to the provisions of the Act and any rules and regulations made under the Act.
• Chapter IV, paragraph 23 of the FSSA clearly states that no person shall manufacture, distribute, sell, or expose for sale, nor dispatch or deliver to any agent or broker for the purpose of sale, any packaged food product that is not marked and labeled in the manner specified by regulation.
FOOD SAFETY AND STANDARDS (PACKAGING AND LABELLING) REGULATIONS, 2011
• General Requirements:
1. Every pre-packaged food shall carry a label containing information.
2. The particulars of declaration required under these Regulations to be specified on the label shall be in English or Hindi
3. Pre-packaged food shall not be described or presented on any label or in any labelling manner that is false, misleading or deceptive or is likely to create an erroneous impression regarding its character in any respect;
4. Label in pre-packaged foods shall be applied in such a manner that they will not become separated from the container.
• For example, foods served in hotels, hospitals, by vendors like halwaiis etc.
• Other food products include raw agricultural commodities like rice, wheat, cereals, sugar, salt, non-nutritive products like tea, coffee, spices, processed and pre-packaged assorted vegetables and fruits, products that comprise single ingredients like papad, pickle.
CERTAIN CATEGORIES OF FOOD ARE EXEMPTED FROM THE LABELLING REQUIREMENTS
• On January 1 2013, India joined a select band of countries where food containing genetically modified (GM) content must be labelled as such. The Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011, say "every package containing the genetically modified food shall bear at the top of its principal display panel the letters 'GM'."
LABELLING OF FOOD CONTAINING GENETICALLY MODIFIED (GM) CONTENT
• Thanks to the food labelling regulations, consumers can now make a wise decision and choice before buying processed food products off the shelf and feel Safe than Sorry.
• On October 13, 2011, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) published “ad-hoc guidelines related to imported food clearance process by FSSAI‟s Authorized Officers.”
• Furthermore, the Food Safety and Standards (packaging and labelling) Regulations, 2011 stated that, wholesale packages are no longer exempted from labelling requirements.