In order to safeguard and maintain food authenticity from deceptive sales, India has modified its legislation to explicitly designate vegan cuisine.
To avoid misleading sales, the FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) has moved to safeguard and clearly define what may and cannot be certified as vegan food.
This new legislation requires that items be evaluated from every viewpoint, including the manufacturing and production processes, to confirm that no animals were used.
The FSSAI defines vegan food as “food or food ingredient, including additives, flavourings, enzymes and carriers, or processing aids that are not products of animal origin and in which no ingredients, including additives, flavourings, enzymes and carriers, or processing aids of animal origin, have been used at any stage of production and processing.”
This controversy arose after plant-based firm Impossible Foods admitted to using animal experimentation to obtain FDA certification for its ‘generally recognised as safe’ (GRAS) status.
To obtain this accreditation, the corporation conducted tests on 200 rats in 2017 and said that it was essential in order to spare many more animal lives.
Impossible Foods will not be able to supply certified vegan food items under the new FSSAI requirements.
“Vegan food items should not have involved animal testing for any reason, including safety evaluation, unless supplied by any Regulatory Authority,” according to the FSSAI.
Furthermore, the regulatory authority has mandated that no vegan food can be imported unless it has been certified by authorities in the exporting nation.
The new regulations were originally written in September 2021, and the FSSAI then had public consultations before publishing them in June 2022.
To demonstrate that the items are vegan, a new logo will be produced.
Countries and the vegan momentum
While some governments choose to prohibit the use of particular terminology in reference to plant-based products, India has opted to redefine vegan cuisine in order to safeguard it.
South Africa has banned plant-based meals with ‘meaty’ labels in recent weeks, claiming that the goods were deceptive to the public.
Despite explicit labelling and packaging, France has now become the first country in the EU to ban plant-based food goods for the same reason.
The decision by India to define what foods may and cannot be vegan could not have arrived at a better moment.
Veganism is becoming more popular in India, which has experienced a growth in its vegan population.
According to a Statista poll, 47 percent of Indian respondents consumed plant-based goods. Another 44.5 percent were found to be vegetarian or vegan eaters.