In a significant move, the Uttar Pradesh Food Safety and Drug Administration (FSDA) has mandated that all packaged, re-packed, and re-labelled food products
carry their actual date of manufacture or processing. Companies can no longer use a later packing date to mask the true age of a product or make older items appear fresh. Packaged food products, which are packed in Uttar Pradesh, will now have to carry their actual date of manufacture, with the Food Safety and Drug Administration (FSDA) Department directing food businesses not to reflect the date of packing as the date of manufacture. This is an issue that Times Now Digital's "E-Comms Hiding Health Info" campaign has been highlighting and reporting. Whether it is manufacturing dates, expiry dates and other mandatory disclosures and how critical they all are for consumer awareness or consumer complaints and what health experts, legal experts believe. The campaign has also reflected the measures the FSSAI has taken so far and reiterated that India's quick commerce and e-commerce boom cannot undermine consumers' right to information. Consumer awareness and transparency is critical going forward. The UP directive comes after special inspections of food manufacturing units, during which officials found instances of products being manufactured and stored for long periods before being packed into smaller packets. In some cases, the date of the packing was mentioned on the product instead of the original manufacturing date as per reports. In fact, in an exclusive interaction with Times Now Digital earlier, Maharashtra's Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Chhagan Bhujbal had mentioned how crucial consumer awareness is and stressed on the need for adopting stringent food safety laws by studying global practices. In an exclusive interaction with Times Now earlier, Maharashtra's Food and Drug Administration Commissioner, Tukaram Munde had said that safety on these platforms (quick commerce/e-commerce) must be judged against compliance, not blanket assumptions about a sector, stressing that products sold through quick-commerce must meet required standards and be sourced from properly registered or licensed entities. On the missing dates specifically, he urged consumers to act as the FDA’s eyes and ears-if a product carries no manufacturing or expiry date, report it on the FDA’s portal, and don’t buy it.
