Oct 17, 2012

Consumer Rights for Food & Food Products

Consumer Rights 
As a consumer you have certain rights with regards to the food and food products you purchase. You also have a redressal mechanism to help you. All you have to do is to be aware and exercise your rights.
Know Your Rights
  1. A Purchaser of food article may, if he so desires, have the article analysed by the Food Analyst as per the provisions of the Act.
  2. The Purchaser shall pay the prescribed fee to the Food Analyst carrying out the analysis which will be refunded if the food sample is sub-standard.
  3. The Food Analyst shall send to the Purchaser his report on the analysis of the article of food and if the finding of the report is to the effect that the article of food is adulterated / misbranded / contaminated or does not conform to the standards prescribed under the Act or the Regulations, the Purchaser shall be entitled to get a refund of the fees paid by him.
Labelling
It is mandatory that every package of food intended for sale should carry a label that bears all the information required under FSS (Packaging and Labelling) Regulation, 2011. Food package must carry a Label with the following information :
  1. Common name of the Product.
  2. Name and address of the product’s Manufacturer
  3. Date of Manufacture
  4. Ingredient List with additives
  5. Nutrition Facts
  6. Best before/ Expires on
  7. Net contents in terms of weight, measure or count.
  8. Packing codes/Batch number
  9. Declaration regarding vegetarian or non-vegetarian
  10. Country of origin for imported food
Consumer Reward Scheme 
FSSAI has a reward scheme for people who convey valid information about mislabelling, misbranding and extravagant claims. Your identity will be kept absolute secret. A reward of Rs. 500 will be given once FSSAI establishes the validity of the complaint. You can send the information to ceo@fssai.gov.in
For more details about Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) please visit their website at fssai.gov.in
The Toll Free Helpline No. is 1-800-11-2100 Complaints can be lodged and followed up online at foodsafetyhelpline.in/FSSAI/ This site also has interesting consumer resources in this area.

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