Bakery Biz, July-August, 2021
The Indian food regulator, FSSAI, has issued a draft called the Food Safety and Standards (Vegan Foods) Regulations, 2021, for regulating vegan foods and asked stakeholders to submit their suggestions. Under these regulations, the FSSAI has defined ‘vegan food’, general requirements under FSS Act, vegan food compliance mechanism, labelling and display requirements including a logo for such products.
According to FSSAI, vegan food means those foods or food ingredients that have not made use of any ingredients, additives and processing aids of animal origin including milk and milk products, fish, poultry and meat, egg or egg products, honey or honey bee products, materials of insect origin like silk, dyes, chitin/chitosan etc. or ingredients that are clarified using animal sourced products e.g., bone char used in sugar bleaching, isinglass in clarifying beer etc.
The general requirement under regulations lays that without complying with these standards/ regulations, no person shall manufacture, pack, sell, offer for sale, market or otherwise distribute or import any food as vegan food.
Also, such product shall not include any animal testing for assessing the safety of the final product or ingredient, says the draft while the traceability should be established up to manufacturer level.
FSSAI says that the FBOs of such vegan products need to apply with all relevant details and there will be a verification by use of analytical tools to ascertain absence of animal origin for endorsement of such product and vegan logo. Further, FSSAI reserves the right for surveillance on such products claiming vegan. Meanwhile, the FSSAI has also issued a logo for such vegan products and all vegan foods shall comply with the packaging and labelling requirements specified under the Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2020, in addition to the labelling requirements specified under the proposed regulations.
===========================================================================================================================================================================
“With the new FSSAI ruling, it is a clear indication of the ever-growing demand for vegan F&B products in the Indian market. With people now moving towards eating planet-friendly foods, and the strong desire to keep pandemics off our plates, the vegan logo will act as a beacon of hope, for a future where vegan food is no longer villainized but embraced and accepted.”
Naimita Jagasia, Chef Founder, An Ode To Gaia, India’s first Luxury Plant-Based Patisserie. Chef Naimita is an internationally recognised vegan pastry chef, entrepreneur, educator and mentor to over 500 aspiring chefs from across the globe.
===========================================================================================================================================================================
