In June 2015 the FSSAI had proposed amendments to the Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations, 2011 regarding declarations of class titles related to labelling of edible oils, edible fats and trans fats in various foods. On publication of the prosed changes in the Gazette the objections and suggestions were received by FSSAI from stakeholders. After taking those into considerations the FSSAI has now made regulations to further amend the Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations, 2011. According to a notification dated 25 May 2016 the new regulations will be called the Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Second Amendment Regulations, 2016. They will come into force once they are published in the Official Gazette
- In the Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations, 2011 changes have been made to the regulations related to ‘Labelling’ in the category ‘Labelling of Pre-packaged Foods. In the clause ‘List of Ingredients’, in the Table with heading ‘Classes’ for the entry ‘Edible vegetable oils/Edible vegetable fat’ and the corresponding entry under the heading ‘Class Titles’ will be changed as follows
Classes | Class Titles |
Edible vegetable oil | Give name of the specific edible oil such as mustard oil, groundnut oil, etc. |
Edible vegetable fat | Give type of vegetable fat (interesterified)
vegetable fat, hydrogenated oils, partially hydrogenated oils, edible vegetable fats, margarine and fat spreads, such as mixed fat spreads, vegetable fat spreads”; |
This means that the labelling of vegetable oil and vegetable fat will be separated and will be different and not combined as formerly.
- In the same sub-regulation on ‘Labelling of pre-packaged foods’ under the clause called ‘Nutritional information’ which says that if the nutrition declaration is made per serving, the amount in gram (g) or millilitre (ml) shall be included for reference as also the serving measure. Here the changes has been made to the proviso
Existing Regulation says;
The food, in which hydrogenated vegetable fats or bakery shortening is used shall declare on the label that ‘hydrogenated vegetable fats or bakery shortening used- contains trans fats; Provided further that, a health claim of ‘trans fat free’ may be made in cases where the trans fat is less than 0.2 gm per serving of food and the claim ‘saturated fat free’ may be made in cases where the saturated fat does not exceed 0.1 gm per 100 gm or 100 ml of food.
FSSAI Proposes:
Every package of edible oils, interesterified vegetable fat, both hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils, edible fats, margarine and fat spreads (mixed fat spread and vegetable fat spread) and package of food in which fats, oils and fat emulsions is used as an ingredient shall declare the quantity of trans fat content and saturated fat content on the label.”
- In regulation category ‘Labelling of edible oils and fats’ clause 4 will be as follows
Every container in which vanaspati, margarine, bakery shortening, blended edible vegetable oils, mixed fat spread and refined vegetable oil is packed in addition to other labelling requirements provided in these regulations shall bear the following particulars in English or Hindi in Devnagri script:
(a) The name/description of the contents, “free from Argemone Oil”;
(b) The mass/volume of the content.
vinay Jain says
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