The Union ministry of consumer affairs (MCA) plans to introduce uniform packaging norms for close to two dozen consumer products from September 1.
Announcing this on the sidelines of a seminar on the role of standards in food safety, organised by the Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) here on Monday, minister K V Thomas said the government had identified 19 products for this mandatory certification. Biscuits and jewellery are two of these; he would not say which the others were.
“We have fixed size and weight as the major criteria in the case of biscuits. For jewellery, mandatory hallmarking is a must,” he said.
Adding, “The government has deliberated for more than two years to come out with a uniform norm. The draft is ready; we require some approvals, which we are sure to get it soon. We hope, we would be able to introduce it on September 1.”
The draft order in question has to be negotiated with the ministry of health and the process is on; the new rules can be notified by an executive order, not needing new legislative approval.
BIS has introduced around 18,700 standards over the past 26 years. For food products in general, Thomas said the ministry had asked state governments to incorporate lessons on the impact of wastage in public functions in the curricula, to create awareness at the primary schooling level onwards.
Thomas said his ministry also wished to curb “misleading advertisements” in print and electronic media channels. “We know it would be a big loss of revenue for the press but we do not have any option but to curb misleading advertisements, which often lure consumers. Hence, these should be controlled,” he said.
He said the ministry was preparing changes to the BIS Act to find ways of implementing norms such as these.