Thinking of starting a food supplement business in India?This article can guide you to know more about food supplements and their business in India.Nowadays demand for food supplements is increasing because of the increasing consciousness for health among Indians. In the food sector, supplements are gaining much popularity and is believed to grow even more.
What are Food Supplements?
As per FSSAI food supplements are “foods which are specially processed or formulated to satisfy particular dietary requirements which may exist because of a particular physical orphysiological conditions or specific diseases and disorders”
The food supplements may contain ingredients such as-
- Botanicals, plants or their parts.
- Mineral, vitamins, proteinsor their compounds (within RDA limits) and enzymes.
- Substances from animal origin.
Steps to Regulatory compliance for your Food Supplements Business –
- Obtain Applicable Food Business Licenses
- Ensure use of approved Ingredients
- Ensure use Nutritional Ingredients and additives at permissible level.
- Comply your Labels, Claims and Advertisements
It is mandatory to obtain a Food Business Permit, commonly referred to as FSSAI License, for every individual or organization involved in manufacturing, marketing, retail, import and export of food supplements in India.
Any food for special nutritional use or dietary supplements sold in India should comply with the functional food regulations notified by the FSSAI. It is important that ingredients and additives used in food supplement shall be as per the approved list of FSSAI regulations.
As per the FSSAI regulations, the quantity of nutritional ingredients used must be supported by published scientific data and clinical studies. One should keep in mind that the nutrients in the food products must not exceed the limit of one RDA.
For selling the food supplements in India, the companies must state their purpose of use and target age group of consumers with precise labelling requirements.
Apart from complying with the mandatory labelling requirements, compliance to the FSSAI claims and advertisement regulations is also required.
Due to vast and complex regulatory system in India, compliance process often becomes difficult for the budding food industries. Thus, the process permits the task easy by hiring food regulatory consultants.
