The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has issued an order making it mandatory for sweet shops to declare the expiry date or “best before date” of all sweets available in the shop. The order will come into effect from October 1.
The corona virus cases are rising at an uncontrollable speed nationwide. Everything is shut down and the economy is struggling to be in place. Therefore, it is necessary to take some necessary steps and re-open everything slowly and safely. This step by FSSAI can prove really helpful in preventing illness in common peoples. And, if it is implied everywhere then we can buy our favourite sweets from the shops without any hesitation.
The FSSAI has also ordered to mention the date of making the sweets on its labelling while selling them. But the order is not mandatory leaving it at the discretion of the shopkeepers divulge the aforementioned piece of information about the date of manufacture.
Earlier, it was stated by FSSAI that the sweet shops; will have to mandatorily mention the date of manufacture on the labels. The order says “Further, in the public interest and to ensure food safety; it has been directed that in case of non-packaged/loose sweets the container or tray holding sweets at the outlet should display; the ‘date of manufacturing’ and ‘best before date’ of the said products.”
However, the Federation of Sweets and Namkeen Manufacturers (FSNM), representing over 400 manufacturers of Indian sweets and namkeens had cited their doubts about the order, and the regulatory authority later modified the order to state that the date of the manufacturer will not have to be mentioned.
The FSSAI had decided to issue this order after it cited instances of sweet shops selling stale; and expired sweets which might pose a health risk to the consumers.
According to the guidance note issued by FSSAI, traditional milk-based sweets are generally prepared from khoya, chhena, sugar and other ingredients such as maida, flavours, and colours e.g. peda, burfi, milk cake, gulab jamun, rasgulla, rasmalai etc. Sweets particularly those with milk products have lesser self- life and are more prone to microbial growth. Therefore, sanitation and hygiene in their preparation and consumption within self-life is of utmost importance.
While the regulation will surely insecure the availability of quality sweets; but at the same time; it will be a difficult task for sweet shops to regulate the processing and labelling to avoid any chaos.
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