Sweet sellers to compulsorily display ‘best before’ date from October 1, manufacturing date not mandatory

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.

Now, at the sweet shop, it will be necessary to state the 'best before date; in front of all the sweets. Now, the sweets will have to be sold before the expiry date.

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, the FSSAI had stated that mithai shops will have to mandatorily mention the date of manufacture on the labels. “Further, in 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," the order said.

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 manufacture 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.