Businesses to display 'best before date' of loose sweets from Oct 1: FSSAI

Next week onward when you walk into a sweet shop, you would immediately know which of the items are to be picked up for your family and friends – the trays in the showcase will carry the “Best-Before” date.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India on Friday came up with an order making it mandatory for all sweet shop owners to display the Best Before Date depending on the local weather conditions. This will come into effect from October 1.

It has been decided that in case of non-packaged or loose sweets, the container (tray) holding sweets at the outlet for sale should display the “Best Before Date” of the product mandatorily, the FSSAI said in the order.

Almost all packaged food products now carry such a date informing the consumers if it’s alright to purchase the items.

Besides the Best Before the date, the sweet business owners can also display the date of manufacturing, but that would be voluntary and non-binding,

The order comes weeks before Dussehra and Diwali festivities when demand for the sweetmeat rises sharply.

While the date would have to be determined by keeping the nature of the product and local conditions in mind, according to a guidance note prepared by the FSSAI on traditional milk products the Bengali sweets and those made out of milk should be consumed within two days whereas laddoo and khoya sweets can be consumed within four days of making. The sweets made of ghee and dry fruits have a shelf life of a week.

The food regulator has also asked the manufacturers of edible oils not to blend any other vegetable oil with mustard oil to keep its purity intact.

“From Oct 1, no manufacturing of blended edible vegetable oil with mustard oil as an ingredient shall be allowed,” the FSSAI said in another order.

While earlier an admixture of two vegetable oils in which one component has to be a minimum of 20% by weight was allowed, the government decided to prohibit such blending in the case of mustard oil for domestic consumption in the public interest, the FSSAI said.