On 13 January, 2016 the FSSAI amended regulations for “Proprietary foodsâ€. The amendment relates to clause 2.12 “Proprietary Foods†of Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011.
Under the new Regulations, foods like novel, functional or food for special dietary use will no longer be included in the proprietary food. In the future, this might mean that proprietary foods will no longer need to undergo the Product approval process. Remains to be seen. Details on legislative changes are below.
2011 Regulations on Proprietary foods
“Proprietary Food†was defined as food that has not been standardized under 2011 Regulations. The labels of such foods had to have a clear indication of: Description of food; nature or composition of food and/or information regarding the category under which the food falls as per the regulation
“Proprietary foods†were required to comply with the provisions of food additives mentioned in Appendix A and microbiological specifications of Appendix B of Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011.
2016 Regulations on Proprietary foods
“Proprietary Foods†are now defined as ‘an article of food that has not been standardized under these regulations, but does not include any novel food, food for special dietary use, functional food, nutraceutical, health supplement and such other articles of food which the Central Government may notify in this behalf’.
The ingredients permitted:
- Should be only those that are either standardized in the Regulations or
- Permitted for use in the preparation of other standardized food under the Regulations.
For additives, only such additives shall be used as specified for the Category to which the food belongs and such category shall be clearly mentioned on the label along with its name, nature and composition.
The clause with respect to food additives provisions of Appendix A and microbiological specifications of Appendix B shall apply along with other regulations issued by the authorities.
The responsibility of ensuring safety of proprietary foods lies with the FBO’s.
What will be the impact on the industry?
The new regulations can be seen as an important step taken by FSSAI towards facilitating innovation in the food industry and making a wide variety of foods available to the consumer Most innovative products were until now stalled due to the product approval system enforced by the FSSAI. It is possible that this might change in the future.
Also, defining the safety of proprietary foods as FBO responsibility is an important step, as these types of foods are widely consumed across India.
It is important to note that there is a distinction between “Proprietary foods†and “Traditional Foodsâ€(clause 3.1.1 of Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011). Traditional foods are permitted to contain additives as included under Table 2 of Appendix A.
However, from the enforcement point of view, it is important to note that licensing and registration of FBO’s are still linked to “Product Approvalâ€Â system. This is mainly because of document requirements needed to obtain central licenses. The FSSAI is yet to clarify its stand in this regard as the system of Product approval has been halted and no interim regulations have been put in effect.
