Brief description

Safety and sustainability of food packaging has now become a subject of vital importance to all businesses due to the health and environmental impact of the packaging, especially plastics and increasing awareness among the consumers on the same. FSSAI has taken a lead in addressing these concerns by promoting innovative and alternative food packaging materials and also by continuously working on the risk assessment and safety of packaging materials. FSSAI has also organized many awareness programmes towards plastic waste management and reduction of plastic footprint in the F&B industry.

Implementation Model

1. Apart from framing the Packaging Regulations that provide guidelines for businesses looking to verify that the packaging materials and processes they are using are safe for food, FSSAI has recently taken an initiative towards reduction of plastic footprint in the F&B industry, wherein many of the Food businesses have pledged to eliminate single-use plastic in coming years; develop environmental friendly substitutes and also an efficient plastic collection and recycling/disposal system in the F&B sector.
2. In alignment with the Swachhata Hi Seva Campaign, various awareness generation and collection drives were organized to free our houses, offices and workplaces from single use plastic

Resources

1. Eat Right India website: https://fssai.gov.in/cms/eatrightindia.php
2. Press Release https://fssai.gov.in/upload/press_release/2019/09/5d8a03cc10b7dPress_Release_Plastic_Waste_Free_24_09_2019.pdf
3. Letter: https://fssai.gov.in/upload/advisories/2019/12/5e09dbd43b8a3Letter_Plastic_Disposal_30_12_2019.pdf
4. Advisories:
   1. https://www.fssai.gov.in/upload/advisories/2019/09/5d6e4cd671207Letter_Bamboo_Food_Material_03_09_2019.pdf
   2. https://www.fssai.gov.in/upload/advisories/2019/09/5d766553bfdacOrder_Paper_Sealed_Glass_Bottle_09_09_2019.pdf
   3. https://www.fssai.gov.in/upload/advisories/2020/02/5e3d4cdfba1ebDirection_Antinomy_limits_Packaged_Drinking_Water_07_02_2020.pdf

Stakeholders & Roles

• Food Businesses: The food businesses as pledged would plan accordingly to reduce the packaging/plastic footprint and to develop infrastructure and systems for segregation/recycling.
• Food Safety Departments of States/UTs: These departments may create awareness and educate the public on use of alternatives to plastics, proper plastic disposal and litter management.
• Consumers: Consumers may responsibly segregate waste and properly dispose of packaging materials to ease collection and recycling.
• Regulators: FSSAI has constituted a Scientific Panel on Packaging to deal with the challenges in the area and to address them accordingly in the regulations. The food authority has also linked various eminent research organizations working in the same field and constituted a Network for Scientific Co-operation for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (NetSCoFAN), namely the safer & sustainable packaging group to provide necessary scientific research, data and knowledge.

Success Stories

"Shri Virat Kohli on 12th September 2019 joined hands with FSSAI and reached out to millions of fans through his social media accounts (Twitter, Instagram and Facebook) to spread awareness around plastic waste free India and invited them to a collection drive organised by FSSAI and for a period of 09 days starting from 12th Sep ? 19th Sep 2019 with a collection of approx. 305 Kgs of waste including PET bottles, Poly propylene pouches, Low/High density polythene, Hard plastic and Multi-layered plastics."

"Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare on 24th September 2019 graced awareness and engagement event was organised at Prayas Children?s Home in Jahangirpuri, New Delhi as part of ?Swachhata Hi Seva 2019?. At this event, 22 of the top food companies including multinational companies committed themselves to effectively manage plastic waste in their operations and reduce their plastic footprint in the coming years. They also signed a voluntary pledge at the event that includes the commitment from food businesses for reduction of plastic footprint in the coming years. "