Edible products to carry best before8217; tag soon

While the advent of plastic packaging has led to the mushrooming of millions of home-based and small-scale packaged food producers, the Prevention of Food Adulteration PFA Rules, 1955, have not kept pace with changes in the industry.

quot;Best beforequot; would indicate the date by which, under stated storage conditions, the product would retain the specific qualities optimally which it claims to possess. What this bit of legalese means is that the packaged food can be safely consumed without doubts about its freshness.

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare explains that the quot;best beforequot; date differs from the quot;use beforequot; date which would apply to items like baby food, infant formula and infant milk substitutes.

In the case of quot;best beforequot;, the product may continue to be satisfactory for consumption even after the quot;best beforequot; date, whereas the quot;use beforequot; date clearly indicates the recommended last date before which the product has to be consumed.

quot;Use beforequot; marks the estimated period under any storage conditions after which the product will not have the quality attributes expected by consumers and the product cannot be marketed once the date is over.

The government issued a gazette notification on November 15 inviting objections and suggestions from the public within 30 days regarding its proposal to amend the provisions of the PFA rules on making the quot;best beforequot; date mandatory.

Though long overdue, attempts to introduce mandatory dating of products have been resisted by the packaged food industry. The government had tried to introduce such amendments of the PFA rules through an earlier notification issued on July 9, 1998, which was to have come into effect by July 9 this year.

But after repeated pleas from the industry that they needed time to switch over to new product labels this deadline has been extended to January 1, 2000.

The proposed amendments stipulate that the quot;best beforequot; details have to be printed on the body of the package and no stickers or add-ons can be used for giving these details. Best before details would have to be indicated on each individual package and not on wholesale packages as the information is solely for the customer.

However, one prominent food item that has been given breathing space till July 9, 2000, is packaged bread. This is so as to give the industry sufficient time to implement this requirement, the Health Ministry said.