With restaurant chains mandated to display calorie count of dishes and other nutritional information on their menus from July 1, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India on Tuesday directed food aggregators to ensure this nutritional information is also available on their platforms.
According to display regulations for food service establishments which will come into effect from July 1, restaurants having a central licence or having 10 or more outlets will need to mention the calorie count of each of the dishes and food items on their menu cards (in kcal per serving and serving size). They will also need to mention other nutritional information such as food allergens in easy to understand symbols and logos for vegetarian and non-vegetarian food. In addition, the regulations state that food business e-commerce players (food delivery platforms) will also need to display the same on their platforms.
FSSAI said in the order,
“All e-commerce food business operators are hereby directed to enable provisions in their platforms including mobile applications for display of nutritional information as well as other specific requirements under the ibid regulations, so that Food Business Operators (restaurant chains) registered on your respective platforms would be able to feed and update such information in respect of each dish/ food they are offering for sale.”
It also directed Regional Directors to ensure food delivery platforms comply with these regulations that come into effect from July 1.
These regulations are not applicable on event caterers. In addition, calorie count is not required to be displayed for free-of-charge self-serve condiments, special-order items, modified meals or menu items made as per customer’s requests among others.
The regulations were earlier slated to come into effect from January 1 but due to the pandemic, the food authority had extended the deadline to July 1.