Why ‘veg’ is ‘non-veg’: what Delhi High Court said

What is the news?

Delhi High Court has directed the food safety regulator to ensure that food business operators make full disclosures on all that goes into any food.

What is the case?

Ram Gaua Raksha Dal, a non-government Trust, filed a petition in the court to label all products, including non-consumables like crockery, wearable items, etc on the basis of the ingredients used. For food items, the petition sought to label not only the ingredients but also the items used in the manufacturing process.

What is the Delhi High Court verdict?

Under the verdict, operators now have to strictly comply with Regulation 2.2.2(4) of the Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations, 2011. They have to disclose every detail like whether products originate from plant or animal sources, or are manufactured in a laboratory and what percentage derived from them.

The court said, use of non-vegetarian ingredients, even in “a minuscule percentage would render such food articles non-vegetarian and would offend the religious and cultural sensibilities/ sentiments of strict vegetarians. Thus, interfering in people’s right to freely profess, practice and propagate their religion and belief.

What are the labelling requirements under the 2011 Regulations?

Definition: It defines non-vegetarian food which contains whole or part of any animal including birds, freshwater or marine animals or eggs or products of any animal origin excluding milk or milk products.

Labelling: All non-vegetarian food should be labelled with a brown colour-filled circle inside a square with a brown outline. Where egg is the only non-vegetarian ingredient, a declaration to this effect in addition to the said symbol”. Vegetarian food must be labelled with a “green colour filled circle inside the square with a green outline.

Declaration of ingredients:  Manufacturers must disclose which types of edible vegetable oil, edible vegetable fat, animal fat or oil, fish, poultry meat, or cheese, etc. has been used in the product.

What is the problem with the labelling?

The court noticed that some food operators are misusing the act, as it does not specifically oblige them to disclose the source from which the ingredients are sourced.

Example: Chemical disodium inosinate, a food additive found in instant noodles and potato chips, which is commercially manufactured from meat or fish. But operators only disclose the codes of the ingredients. Due to this, many food articles, which have ingredients sourced from animals, are passed off as vegetarian by affixing the green dot.

Source: This post is based on the article “Why ‘veg’ is ‘non-veg’: what Delhi High Court said” published in Indian Express on 16th December 2021.