FSSAI Labelling: A Practical Compliance Checklist Before You Print

A non-compliant label discovered after printing means the entire run is scrap. Cylinders are cut, laminate is printed, and none of it can be used. This is among the most expensive avoidable mistakes in packaged food, and it happens constantly.

This checklist is not legal advice, and regulations are amended, verify current requirements against the FSSAI's published regulations, or have your manufacturer's regulatory team check the artwork. Any competent contract manufacturer will do this as a matter of course, and you should ask them to.

Mandatory declarations

Every pre-packaged food sold in India must carry:

Name of the food. The common or generic name, not just your brand name. "Crunchy Bites" is not a food name; "Extruded Millet Snack" is.

List of ingredients in descending order of weight at the time of manufacture, including compound ingredients broken down where they exceed the threshold. Additives declared by class name and either their specific name or INS number.

Nutritional information per 100 g or 100 ml, covering energy, protein, carbohydrate (with sugars declared separately), fat and any nutrient about which a claim is made. Per-serving declaration additionally where relevant.

Declaration of vegetarian or non-vegetarian status, the green or brown filled circle within a square outline. Size and placement are specified.

Allergen declaration. Cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, peanuts, soybeans, milk, tree nuts, and added sulphites above the threshold. Declare clearly, not buried mid-list.

Name and complete address of the manufacturer, and where you are the brand owner and someone else manufactures, the manufacturer's details plus your own as marketed-by.

FSSAI logo and licence number, the manufacturer's licence number, prominently.

Net quantity in metric units, in the position and minimum type size the Legal Metrology rules specify.

Lot, batch or code number.

Date marking, date of manufacture and either best-before or use-by, as appropriate to the product.

Country of origin for imported food.

Instructions for use where the food cannot reasonably be used without them.

Claims, where brands get caught

Nutritional and health claims are regulated separately and specifically. Making one you cannot substantiate is a compliance failure, not a marketing choice.

Common traps:

• "High in protein" requires the product to meet a defined threshold of energy from protein. Meeting it is a formulation decision, not a copywriting one.
• "Sugar free" has a strict numerical threshold. "No added sugar" is a different claim with different conditions, and neither means the product contains no sugars.
• "Natural" has conditions attached and cannot be applied to a product that has undergone processing beyond specified limits.
• "Immunity", "boosts", "prevents", health claims stray quickly into territory requiring approval, and disease-prevention claims are largely prohibited outright.
• "Organic" requires certification under the applicable organic regulations. You cannot simply assert it.

Have every claim checked before artwork is finalised. This is the single highest-value fifteen minutes in the whole packaging process.

Format requirements people miss

• Minimum type size is specified and scales with pack area. Small packs have relaxations; check which apply.
• Principal display panel requirements govern what must appear on the front rather than anywhere on the pack.
• Language. English or Hindi at minimum; additional languages permitted.
• Contrast. Declarations must be legible against the background, pale grey text on a pale background fails, however good it looks in the design.

The sequence that avoids scrap

1. Finalise the formulation.
2. Get the product tested and obtain the actual nutritional analysis. Do not estimate from a database, declared values must reflect what is in the pack.
3. Draft the artwork with all mandatory declarations.
4. Have it reviewed by your manufacturer's regulatory team.
5. Revise.
6. Approve for cylinder cutting.
7. Print.

Steps four and five are where the money is saved. A review costs an afternoon. A reprint costs a lakh and a half and six weeks.

For export

Destination requirements sit on top of Indian ones and frequently conflict: nutrient panels in different formats, different allergen lists, different date conventions. The United States requires FDA facility registration; the EU has its own labelling regulation; Gulf markets have their own requirements including shelf life-remaining rules at the port of entry.

Plan for a separate artwork per destination. Trying to build one label that satisfies every market generally produces one that satisfies none.

*Our team reviews artwork for regulatory compliance as part of every private-label engagement, before anything reaches a printer. Send us your product brief.*