The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has issued a letter instructing authorised officers in states to conduct drive to curb the sale of misbranded nutraceuticals products which are sold with wrong labelling in the market.
According to the letter by FSSAI, it has been reported that various Food Business Operators (FBOs), who have been selling nutraceuticals and health supplements are not following the labelling regulations.
The letter pointed out that FBOs selling nutraceuticals or health supplement products, which have gelatin shells or contain ingredients from animal origin, were putting green dot on their package labels and declaring the same as vegetarian products.
It further stated, "This is in contravention of Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations, 2011, which mandates the applicability of veg or non-veg on the label of pre- packed food products. And it would be considered as misbranding if the product fails to comply with the norms.”
In the letter, Parveen Jargar, joint director, regulatory compliance, FSSAI, stated, “All the food products falling under category of nutraceuticals/health supplements shall have to comply with the FSS regulations for health supplements, nutraceuticals, food for special dietary use, food for special medical purpose, functional food and novel food, released in 2016 as well as FSS regulations on packaging and failing in doing so would attract penalty in accordance with the law.”
He added that the state authorities have been asked to initiate a strong enforcement drive to keep a check on such food products violating the norms. The letter also urged the state authorities to initiate appropriate action against the defaulting FBOs.
