INGREDIENT-BASED APPROVAL FOR PROPRIETARY FOODS

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) recognizes that a specific framework to manufacture and market proprietary food is required in accordance with the global best practices to provide certainty to all stakeholders while providing them with the flexibility to innovate.

Earlier the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011 defines“the Proprietary food as food that has not been standardized under these regulations.”

The notification dated January 12, was issued to put the onus of food safety squarely on the FBOs and amends the definition of Proprietary food “an article of food that has not been standardized under these regulations, but does not include any novel food, food for special dietary use, functional food, nutraceutical, health supplement and such other articles of food which the Central Government may notify in this behalf.”

According to revised regulation, Nutraceuticals and health and dietary supplements such as fortified foods and energy drinks will no longer be considered proprietary food by India’s regulator and will be considered as a Special purpose food. Various stakeholders engaged in this business have raised their concerns. Then the Clarity has given in the FAQs issued by the FSSAI Authority that these special purpose foods will be governed by their respective regulations as and when notified. But if such food products have a product approval then they can continue to be manufactured/sold till such time that specific regulations in this regard are notified and the central food safety regulator has issued a circular, dated January 14, 2016 directing all the state food regulators to implement the new relaxed norms for product approval process.

Read More at :- LexComply - FSSAI Blog