FSSAI could waive approval requirement for pre-cleared ingredients

05-Jan-2016 - Last updated on 05-Jan-2016 at 08:43 GMT

India’s food regulator may end the practice of requiring manufacturers to gain approvals for products that have been deemed safe elsewhere, according to media reports.

The current approval process, which was introduced in May 2013 through an advisory by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, requires all ingredients to be approved.

However, this process has been been criticised by a barrage of ministers and food processors, while the Supreme Court ruled last year that it had no official standing and should not be construed as a regulation.

The FSSAI subsequently discontinued its approvals process, but then announced that it would consider enacting it as a regulation, which led to widespread concern among food companies.

However, now it seems that the regulator is leaning towards introducing regulations that are practiced across a number of developed overseas food markets.

Speaking to Economic Times, an unnamed senior FSSAI officer said: "We are in the process of formulating regulations for product approval process. We thought we could take this opportunity to review the procedure rather than just convert the advisory into regulation.”