VIJAYAWADA: Come June 1, sweet shop owners in Andhra Pradesh will have to mention the date of manufacture and best-before details of non-packaged products as well, as the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has mandated this.
The FSSAI direction reportedly came after several consumers complained that sweets were being sold even after they had expired. As of now, the date of manufacture and shelf life are only mentioned for packaged products, especially those that are exported. But soon, not just this information, but even the list of ingredients, will have to be presented beside the trays in which sweets are sold.
Officials of the Food Safety department are now getting ready to sensitise owners of sweet shops on how to implement the directive. There are about 5,000 sweet shop owners and wholesale manufacturers in the State, these officials said.
Shop owners, meanwhile, suggested that implementing the directive would be easier said than done. “The government may have taken this decision keeping public interest in mind, but it should also consider the plight of workers involved in manufacturing sweets as most of them are uneducated,” said the owner of a prominent sweet shop in Vijayawada, adding that the department should organise awareness programmes for workers before implementing the mandate.
He further mentioned that he only came across the new rule on social media, and is yet to get a confirmation from the food safety department.
Assistant food controller N Purnachandra Rao told TNIE that the FSSAI has received several complaints about the sale of sweets that were no longer fit for consumption. Taking a serious note of this, the FSSAI recently instructed the Food Safety department to chalk out a plan to effectively implement the mandate, he said.
‘’We are expecting orders regarding the mandate from the FSSAI by the end of this month. After receiving them, the department will organise a series of awareness sessions to sensitise shop owners and wholesale manufacturers for at least two months to effectively implement the mandate, reduce adulteration, and prevent the use of substandard products,” Rao added.