Food firms to display specifics of edible oil, fat content on label

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has notified some amendments in standards for labelling, which is expected to offer clarity to consumers on the kind of edible vegetable oil and vegetable fat used in various food products. Companies will also now have to declare trans-fat and saturated fat content on the label.

The regulation, called the Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Second Amendment Regulations 2016, was floated as a draft in July last year to seek public and stakeholder opinion.

The food regulator, in its notification uploaded on its Web site on Thursday, said that packaged food companies will need to give specifics on the source of edible vegetable oil on the label of pre-packaged food. So, the companies will now need to specify the kind of edible vegetable oil used, such as mustard oil, groundnut oil among others.

Nutritional facts

Similarly companies will also have to specify the type of edible vegetable fat used in the product. For instance, they will have to specify whether they used interesterified vegetable fat, hydrogenated oils, partially hydrogenated oils, edible vegetable fats, margarine and fat spreads, such as mixed fat spread and vegetable fat spreads etc.

The notification also states that in terms of nutritional information, companies will also have to declare the quantity of trans-fat content and saturated fat content on the label. 

Source : The Hindu Business Line