Food packs to show nutritional value

Kolkata: Companies producing processed foods and edible oils got a temporary reprieve from mandatory printing of nutritional value of food components on their labels. The ministry of health and family welfare has deferred its implementation till February 20, 2008, which was scheduled on August 20, 2007.

The ministry issued a corrigendum to this effect, amending the notification no. G.S.R. 491(E), dated August 21, 2006, which stipulated implementation of food labelling norms from August 20 this year, under Prevention of Food Adulteration Act. This is the second time that the ministry has deferred the deadline for implementation of the rules, which for the first time was set on July 21, 2006.

The new food labelling rules have made it mandatory for producers of processed food and edible oils to compulsorily mention energy content of ingredients on their packets. As per the rules, food producers have to mention on their product labels the energy value of protein, carbohydrate and fat contents in food products, in terms of Kcal (kilo-calori) per 100 gm or per 100 ml.

In case of edible oils, the ask is to quantify content and specify the types of fatty acids in it, whether it is saturated fatty acids or polyunsaturated fatty acids or mono-saturated fatty acid or trans-fatty acid. While vitamins and minerals contents have to be mentioned in metric units per 100 gm or per 100 ml of oil. This apart, the new rules have made it mandatory to mention proprietary licence number on the labels of all food grade items.

The ministry of health and family welfare has deferred the implementation deadline twice on the request of the concerned industries, which said that in the absence of clear-cut guidelines from the ministry, the industries are not in a position to create enabling infrastructure for determining energy value for each of the food component.

Industries’ demands were spearheaded by Ficci and Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA). Without well defined guidelines, it is not clear whether the nutritional value is needed to be determined on a single product basis or on the basis of batch of a product, said a SEA official.