The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (“FSSAI”) has issued the Draft of Food Safety and Standards (Vegan Foods) Regulations, 2021 (“Draft Rules”) with a view to restrain any person from manufacturing, packing, selling, offering for sale, marketing or otherwise distributing or importing any food as vegan food unless they comply with the requirements prescribed under these regulations.
Key Highlights:
General Requirement
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Vegan Food include those foods or food ingredients that have not made use of any ingredients, additives and processing aids of animal origin including milk and milk products, fish, poultry and meat, egg or egg products, honey or honey bee products, materials of insect origin like silk, dyes;
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No person shall manufacture, pack, sell, offer for sale, market or otherwise distribute or import any food as vegan food unless they comply with the requirements laid down under these regulations;
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The food products or ingredients which will be labelled as vegan, shall not have involved animal testing for evaluating the safety of the final product/ingredient; and, shall not contain any animal derived GMOs or products prepared using animal derived gene for manufacturing the ingredients or products;
Vegan Food Compliance:
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All vegan foods/ingredients shall comply with the relevant provisions, as applicable under the Act, Rules and regulations;
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For complying with vegan food requirement, the Food Business Operator shall submit an application with all necessary details related to plant/machinery/premises to the Authority and inspection and verification of the premises shall be done by concerned Food Safety Officer or Designated Officer by use of analytical tools (molecular/chemical/combination of both) available to ascertain absence of animal origin for endorsement of the vegan logo in the license;
Labelling and Display Requirement
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Labelling and display requirements- All vegan foods shall comply with the packaging and labelling requirements specified under the Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2020;
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Written by: Anchal Sharma
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