FSSAI Removes Mandatory 'Best Before Date' Requirement For Non-Packaged Sweets, FDA To Intensify Festival Season Inspections

Mira Bhayandar: In an unprecedented move, the Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has removed the mandatory guideline of displaying ‘best before date’ boards on containers and trays of non-packaged / loose sweets.

Food business operators (FBOs) are no longer legally bound to mention the best before date on such food items and may continue on a voluntary basis. The Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling of Food Businesses) Regulations, 2011, had introduced the provision of the best before date.

The 2011 regulations have been superseded by the Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2020. Food authority officials, found the directions of the 2020 regulations need further deliberations by the scientific panel concerned regarding the date markings on non-packaged and loose food products.

Therefore, the FSSAI decided to suspend the directions issued on September 25, 2020, to FBOs regarding non-packaged sweets, loose sweet containers, and trays. According to FSSAI the decision was not the result of any demand from the FBO’s but it arose from a technicality.

Although the date marking rule have been withdrawn, the FDA like an annual ritual during the festival season issues a list of directions to sweet-makers and shopkeepers which includes-preparing sweets in hygienic conditions, use of drinking water, temperature checks and medical tests of workers to ensure that they are free from any infections and skin diseases.

However, most of the sweet shop owners are brazenly defying the guidelines even as the FDA rarely conducts inspections to keep a tab on brazen anomalies which are directly related to the health of people. On the other hand, the FDA claims that sample testing at food vending establishments is a regular process, and surveillance is intensified during the festive season as sweets are sold and consumed in large quantities.