FSSAI Permits Use of Regional Names in Revised Curd Labelling Order

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) updated its ruling allowing the use of regional common names on curd packet labels on Thursday, amid a dispute in Tamil Nadu over the Hindi term "Dahi." 

FSSAI said in a statement on Thursday that food company operators can use the term "curd" on the label, along with the popular regional common name in brackets.

This comment comes after the Tamil Nadu government objected to the food safety authority's directive that the term "dahi" be used on curd packs. Aavin has stated that it will not label their products with the Hindi term "dahi." Similar concerns were apparently expressed by the Karnataka Milk Federation and the Kerala Milk Federation.

In a tweet on Wednesday, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin said, "The unashamed insistence of Hindi Imposition has come to the extent of asking us to label even a curd packet in Hindi, relegating Tamil & Kannada in our own states. Such flagrant contempt for our mother languages will ensure that those responsible are permanently barred from the South (sic)."

The unapologetic #HindiImposition has gone so far as to require us to name even a curd packet in Hindi, relegating Tamil and Kannada to our respective states. "As many representations were received recently on the omission of the term 'curd' from the Standards of Fermented Milk Products, it has been decided that FBOs may use the term "Curd" along with any other designation (prevalent regional common name) in brackets on the label," the food safety authority said on Thursday.

"Accordingly, Curd can also be labelled as "Curd (Dahi)", "Curd (Mosaru)", "Curd (Zaamut daud)", "Curd (Thayir)" or "Curd (Perugu)", it continued. In January, the food safety agency published rules for the removal of the term "curd" from the Standards of Fermented Milk Products, with only the term "dahi" stated.

The 'Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011 explicitly spell down criteria for the use of dairy term(s) in the nomenclature of dairy products (milk, milk product, or a composite milk product) and corresponding bans for such use in non-dairy goods. As a result, when the term "curd" was written alongside "Dahi" in the abovementioned regulation, it limited its application to non-dairy products," the FSSAI stated.