Traders, FBOs seek time to comply with FSSAI’s regulation

MADURAI: Several traders and food business operators in Madurai have sought The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to provide adequate time to display the print of ‘Expiry Date / Use by Date’ on covers of consumer products packaged in various quantities.

As per Food Safety and Standards Act (Packaging and Labeling) Regulations, 2011 the food business operators packing the food commodities were earlier instructed to declare ‘Best before’ in their packages to determine shelf life of products. But since July 1, 2022, the FSSAI issued to new regulation mandating to print ‘expiry / use by date’ instead of ‘Best before’ on packing covers.

The food business operators (FBOs), be it manufacturers or re-packers, would have a minimum of 10 to maximum of 200 products for which, they keep in stock large quantities of packing material.

Normally, the FBOs would print and have six months of stock of packing material with them for each product. For printing a label, they have been investing nearly Rs 50,000, SVSS Velshankar, president, Tamil Nadu Foodgrains Merchants Association Limited, Madurai said on Saturday.

Frequent amendments and changes brought under this packaging and labeling regulations would create heavy monetary loss to the FBOs by way of investments, packaging stock and working capital. It would take a few more months to exhaust the stock of unsold packing material, he said.

Considering the plight of traders, the TNFMAL, Madurai has demanded the FSSAI to give till the end of March, 2023 to comply with amendments.