NEW DELHI: All sweet shops will soon be required to declare the manufacturing and best-before dates of all sweets, India’s food safety regulator has ruled.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, in an order issued on Monday, said that all sweets, sold loose or in packets, will have to mandatorily display the manufacturing and “best before” dates.
The move is aimed at ensuring that consumers purchase fresh products.In the order that will be effective from June 1 this year, FSSAI said all sweet shops use labelling on trays that display sweets.
“Further, in public interest and to ensure food safety, it has been directed that in case of non-packaged/loose sweets the container or tray holding sweets at the outlet should display the “date of manufacturing” and “best before date” of the said products,” the order said.
Citing instances of stale and expired sweets being sold at shops, FSSAI said it is asking shops to comply with such labelling orders to ensure that consumption of such products does not pose a potential health hazard.
FSSAI also reiterated that sweet and food outlets selling pre-packaged sweets mention the “date of manufacturing” and “best before date” of the products according to FSSAI’s packaging and labelling regulations, 2011.
Branded sweet retailers follow this practice for their packaged products such as gulab jamun, rasgulla and soan papdi.