The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has finalised new labelling and display regulations under which packaged food companies will be required to display red colour-coding on front-of-the-pack labels on food products that have high-fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) content levels.

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Image: FSSAI plans colour-coded labelling for high fat, sugar and salt food products. Courtesy of Igor Ovsyannykov from Pixabay.

The FSSAI has invited comments from stakeholders within 30 days from the publication of the draft regulations, which will supersede the Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations, 2011.

The new colour-coding requirement will be implemented in a phased manner over three years.

According to the proposed draft Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, the front of the pack should display nutritional information such as calories (energy), saturated fat, trans-fat, added sugar and sodium per serve.

Food companies will also be required to declare, per serve percentage contribution to recommended dietary allowance (RDA) on the front of the pack.

In a statement, FSSAI said: “The idea behind the new labelling regulations is to enable citizens to know more about the composition of food products, so that they can make informed choices.”

The proposed regulations also seek changes in printing of the date of manufacturing in a packaged food.

Currently, manufacturing date and expiry date are displayed at two different places on the pack, making it difficult for the consumer to see both at a glance. Under the new regulations, date marking, including date of manufacturing and date of expiry, must be at one place.

Other features of the regulations include mandatory labelling requirements such as information relating to allergens; and new logo for vegetarian food consisting of a green colour filled triangle inside a square with green outline.

The FSSAI regulations also make it mandatory for every package of food material which is not meant for human consumption to bear a [X] symbol for non-food grade items.

Furthermore, nutritional information may additionally be provided in the form of barcode/Global Trade Identification Number (GTIN).

FSSAI has taken up a revision of the Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations, 2011, to have three separate regulations for packaging, labelling and advertisement and claims requirements.

Of these, FSS (Packaging) Regulations and FSS (Advertising and Claims) Regulations have been notified in 2018.