FSSAI has proposed amendments on 6th july,2017 ,which will be called the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Amendment Regulation 2017 related to omission of labelling requirements for Beverages (Non-Alcoholic Carbonated). The FSSAI has invited suggestions and objections in this regard within a period of 30 days. These amendments will come into force on their final publication in the Official Gazette.
The amendment regulation seeks to address the issue of duplicity or overlapping of provisions in respect to declaration of added sugar for non-alcoholic carbonated beverages under the sub-regulation related to BEVERAGES NON-ALCOHOLIC – CARBONATED.
The FSS (Packaging & Labelling) Regulations, 2011 already have the guidelines under “Special Labelling Requirements for Other Productsâ€, where it has been specified that the declaration of “Added Sugarâ€, No-Added Sugarâ€, “Use of Artificial Sweetener†etc. to be mentioned on the label of the food product.
Under the existing regulations for Food Products Standards & Food Additives, the provisos discuss about the labelling declaration of added sugar & artificial sweeteners especially for Carbonated Water (Non-Alcoholic) in the returnable bottles. So, FSSAI proposes to omit the provision for the declaration of artificial sweeteners in Non-Alcoholic Carbonated Beverages in case of the returnable bottles.
In the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011, in the regulation relating to “Beverages Non-Alcoholic-Carbonated†under “Carbonated Water†FSSAI has proposed to change the provisos. The present provisos will now be substituted with the following:
“Provided that the products which contain aspartame, acesulfame or any other artificial sweetener for which special labelling provisions have been provided under regulations 2.4.5 (Specific Labelling Requirements of other Products) (24, 25, 26, 28 and 29) of Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations, 2011, shall not be packed, stored, distributed or sold in returnable containers.â€.
This means that the earlier proviso of declaring the ‘quantity of added sugar’ or ‘no added sugar’ on the crown will no longer be applicable. This also means that the carbonated water (Non-Alcoholic) will no longer be packaged, stored, distributed of marketed in returnable bottles, which can be recycled or refilled when artificial sweeteners like aspartame, acesulfame have been used in the product.
