Sweetshop owners ordered to display dates of manufacture, expiry

Ludhiana: The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has issued a notice that containers or trays holding sweets for sale as loose sweets must have a ‘manufacturing date’ and ‘best before date’, as per local conditions, which would come into effect from June 1.
This has now become a hot topic among sweetshop owners, who say they should have been consulted on the issue, as such directions in the case of sweets was not possible. There are more than 300 shops in Ludhiana district and 2,500 in Punjab.
The notice by RCD joint director Parveen Jargar states, “Instances have been reported of stale and expired sweets being sold to consumers, posing potential health hazards. In case of pre-packaged and pre-packed sweets, the ‘date of manufacturing’ and ‘best before date’ of the products must be mentioned on their labels, as per the Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations, 2011.”
It further states, “The food business operators (FBOs) shall decide and display the ‘best before date’ of sweets, depending on the nature of the product and local conditions. An indicative list of shelf-life of various types of sweets is given in the Guidance Note on Safety and Quality of Traditional Milk Products, which is available on the FSSAI website. All food business operators dealing in sweets shall comply with the above directions.”
Reacting to this, Narinderpal Singh, president of Halwai Association Punjab, said, “This is a critical initiative for sweetshop owners, as there are more than 300 shops in Ludhiana district. While 25-30 elite shop owners would be able to comply with such norms, it is possible for middle-class FBOs, as items like ‘panjiri’ have a greater shelf-life, and thus they cannot display it as two months old. This will lead to a false display of dates, and more violations, leading to corruption. This will also lead to mismanagement and harassment by officials. However, they should have considered the opinion of sweetshop owners before coming up with this rule. It is not possible to display dates on items like barfis and milk cake, but for other items which are perishable like rasgullas, dhoklas, and rasmalai, it can be done.”
The association will take up this issue in a meeting, and give a representation at the state level. However, district health officer Andesh Kang said, “This is in favour of consumers, as they sweetshop owners were never open about their manufacturing dates. This order will maintain the quality of sweets, and we will ensure its implementation.”