Kapurthala, September 27 ( WISHAVWARTA )-In a major decision the Punjab Government has ordered the food business operators dealing in sweets (Mithai items) to comply with the order of F.S.S.A.I (Food Safety Standards Authority of India) under which it becomes mandatory to display the “Best Before Date” in case of sweets.
Assistant commissioner Food and drug administration Kapurthala Dr Harjot pal singh said that the order will come into force from 1st October 2020 and it mandates that in case of non-packaged/loose sweets, the container/tray holding sweets at the outlets for sale should display “Best Before Date” of the product mandatorily w.e.f. 1st October, 2020.
However, in addition to this, FBO (Food Business Operator) may also display the “Date of Manufacturing” which would be purely voluntary and non-binding.
The FBO’s shall decide and display the “Best Before Date” of sweets depending upon the nature of the product and the local conditions like temperature, moisture etc.
He also said that an indicative list of shelf life of various types of sweets is given in the guidance note on Safety of Traditional Milk Products, which is available on FSSAI Website.
He said that all FBO’s dealing in sweets would have to comply with above directions to ensure that the customer/potential customer at the time of purchase, shall know “Best Before Date” i.e. the date by which a particular sweets item, which he/she is going to purchase, can be consumed by human beings.
It is pertinent to mention here that all the sweets (whether prepared from Milk & Milk Products or otherwise) have certain shelf life, after which there is likelihood of growth of micro-organism which deteriorate the quality of the sweets and such sweets is consumed is likely to have ill effect on human health.