New Delhi: Food regulator Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has proposed banning the manufacture and sale of ‘analogue product as paneer’, as it steps up the clampdown on food adulteration and misleading claims.
Analogue paneer is not a dairy product and is made of constituents not derived from milk.
The FSSAI has issued a draft Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restrictions on Sales) Amendment Regulations, 2026. It has given 60 days to stakeholders for objections or suggestions on the draft regulations, which seek to amend the Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restrictions on Sales) Regulations, 2011.
“The amendment is proposed…To restrict manufacturing and sale of analogue product as paneer so as to prevent misleading of consumers regarding the nature and composition of the product,” Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) said in a notification.
Products already licensed or registered under the ‘Analogue in Dairy Context’ category should discontinue the use of the term ‘paneer’ in their nomenclature, labelling or marketing, it added. Many states have already banned the manufacturing and sale of analogue paneer.
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry, in a statement, said the FSSAI has proposed a ban on the use of the term ‘paneer’ for non-milk-derived products.
“The proposed amendment is aimed at ensuring that the nomenclature and presentation of food products accurately reflect their nature and composition, thereby enabling consumers to make informed choices,” the ministry said.
The principal Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restrictions on Sales) Regulations were notified in 2011 and have been amended from time to time.
The proposed amendment seeks to insert a new clause under existing regulations.
In the dairy context, an analogue is a food made to look, taste or function like milk or a milk product, but with non-dairy ingredients replacing some or all of the real milk components.
In the last six months, FSSAI has stepped up enforcement actions against food business operators (FBOs) and e-commerce platforms for alleged misleading claims/ labelling and hygiene-related issues, among other violations.
On Wednesday, the regulator initiated penal action against e-commerce platforms Amazon, Swiggy Instamart, BigBasket, Flipkart India and Zepto for various non-compliances, including misleading claims and sale of prohibited products. It has also cracked down on energy drink makers and alcoholic beverage companies.
