Through an advisory dated 18 September 2019, the FSSAI has drawn attention to certain labelling defects on packaging of Health Supplements and Nutraceutical products. The advisory has been sent so that both food manufacturers as well as FSSAI officials can keep a check to ensure that the labelling is accurate.
The FSSAI has received reports that some food products including Nutraceuticals and Health Supplements products that have gelatine/gelatin shells or which contain ingredients of animal origin are depicting a green dot on their labels. The green dot logo is a mark that declares these products as vegetarian products. Therefore, marking such products as vegetarian is in contravention of the Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations 2011, which mandates application of the veg/no-veg logo on pre-packed food products according to their contents. The above-mentioned labelling shall therefore, be considered as misbranding and labelling defects.
It may be noted that all the food products falling under the category of Nutraceutical/Health Supplement shall have to comply with the Food Safety and Standards (Health Supplements, Nutraceutical, Food for Special Dietary Use, Food for Special Medical Purpose, Functional Food and Novel Food) Regulations, 2016 as well as the Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Regulation, 2011, failing which they will attract penal provisions under FSS Act, 2006.
In view of the above the FSSAI has requested Commissioners of Food Safety of all States/ UTs, FSSAI Authorised Officers and the Central Licensing Authority to initiate enforcement drives so as to keep a check on the sale of such food products in all states and which are in contravention with FSS (Packaging and Labelling) Regulation, 2011. They have also been advised to initiate appropriate action against the defaulting Food Business Operators as per the provisions laid down under FSS Act,2006, and Rules and Regulations made thereunder.
