Labels on packaged food products should not mislead consumer

Accepting the stand of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) that there was a distinction between 'Best Before' and 'Expiry' dates related to pacakaged food products, the Madras High Court has said printing the same date for both would mislead consumers.
The court was dismissing a petition by Amrut Distilleries Limited challenging the refusal of concerned authorities to test samples of imported active dry yeast as the 'Best Before' and 'Expiry' dates on the label of it were same.
Noting that the company had on an earlier occasion too imported product with the same problem and gave an undetaking that it would not repeat the mistake, Justice S Vaidyanathan dismissed the petition with a cost of Rs 30,000.

The Judge made it clear that pacakaged food products which were not marked and labelled in the manner as specicified by Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA) 2006 shall not be sold or distributed.
"The label should contain specific information by which, the consumer should not be misled. If both the dates, viz., 'best before' and 'expiry' are mentioned with same date, it would certainly mislead the consumers since they would be under impression that till the expiry date, the product will be best in all respects, which is practically unacceptable," the Judge said.
The matter related to the import of Active Dry Yeast on September 26, 2014 by the company and the consignment was referred by the Customs Department to FSSAI Chennai for clearance.

FSSAI refused to draw samples stating that the "Best Before" and "Expiry" date on the packages were one and the same and this was in contravention of rules and provisions of FSSA and the guidelines issued on January 24, 2013.

The company had termed as arbitrary the refusal to draw the sample and moved the court.
In the counter-affidavit, FSSAI submitted that there was a distinction between 'best before date' and 'expiry date', whereas, the 'best before date' signifies the duration for which the product shall remain marketable and retain its specific qualities if stored in appropriate conditions and on the other hand, 'expiry date' is the date from which it shall not remain marketable.

A product may be best before a specific date but shall expire only on another specified date.