FSSAI packaging regulations in 2026: food-grade materials, inks, the recycled PET rules, plastic EPR marking, and whether FSSAI approves pack designs.
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Drafted with AI tools; researched, edited and approved by Althameem Ali. Our editorial policy
On this page · 9 sections
- Which rules govern food packaging in India?
- What must every food package meet?
- Which materials and inks are allowed, and to which standards?
- What changed in 2025 and 2026?
- What must plastic packaging print under the EPR rules?
- Is there such a thing as FSSAI-approved packaging?
- What should a brand owner ask the printer for?
- Frequently asked questions
- Get the material right before the artwork
We design food packaging and labels to these rules, and the printer certifies the material. We are not a lab or a law firm: this guide quotes the regulations as they read on 7 October 2026, with a link to each, and a food regulatory consultant should check your pack before the run.
This post covers the package itself: what it's made of, what it's printed with and what plastic packs must print. What the label must say (ingredients, nutrition, the veg symbol, dates and text sizes) is in our FSSAI labelling checklist.
Which rules govern food packaging in India?#
Four sets of rules touch almost every food pack.
- The Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. Section 23 requires packaged food to be labelled as the regulations say and its packaging not to mislead; section 26 makes the food business responsible for compliance at every stage it controls (the Act (opens in a new tab)).
- The FSS (Packaging) Regulations, 2018. The materials rules. Check against FSSAI's consolidated Version V of 2 April 2025 (opens in a new tab); businesses had to comply by 1 July 2019.
- The FSS (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2020, with the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011. What the label says.
- The Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016. The environment ministry's rules on who registers, what a plastic pack must print and the extended producer responsibility (EPR) targets for collecting, recycling and reusing plastic packaging.
What happened to the 2011 packaging and labelling regulations? They no longer exist as one text. When FSSAI notified the Packaging Regulations on 24 December 2018, it said it had decided to divide the FSS (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations, 2011 into two, and replaced the 2011 text "in so far as they relate to the packaging regulations" (the 2018 notification (opens in a new tab)). The labelling half became the 2020 Labelling and Display Regulations. Anyone looking for the "FSSAI packaging and labelling regulations" today needs those two documents.
What must every food package meet?#
Regulation 3 sets the general requirements, here in plain English with the sub-regulation for your consultant:
"Food grade" has its own definition: material "made of substances which are safe and suitable for their intended use", which won't endanger health or cause an unacceptable change in the food's composition or in how it looks, smells or tastes (regulation 2(1)(b)).
For whoever designs the pack, 3(10) means asking the converter which side carries the ink and what separates it from the food, and 3(14) means getting the supplier's paperwork before the first run. Newspaper is out completely: FSSAI's press release of 27 September 2023 (opens in a new tab) adds that it shouldn't even be used to soak oil from fried food.
Which materials and inks are allowed, and to which standards?#
The regulations don't approve brands or suppliers. They name Indian Standards for each material that touches food:
Schedule IV suggests packaging types by food category, from milk and spices to beverages. It is "an indicative list", so a material missing from it can still be used if it meets the standards.
The ink standard is worth knowing by name: BIS lists it as IS 15495:2020, "Printing Ink for Food Packaging: Code of Practice" (opens in a new tab), the first revision. PrintWeek reported in August 2022 (opens in a new tab) that the revision prohibits toluene and phthalates, caps lead, cadmium, mercury and chromium VI at 100 ppm combined, and keeps the legal responsibility for safe packaging with the food business. When BIS revises a referenced standard, FSSAI's direction of September 2020 (opens in a new tab) gives businesses until the next 1 January or 1 July, at least 180 days after BIS publishes it.
What changed in 2025 and 2026?#
A further draft of February 2026 (opens in a new tab) proposes definitions, including food-contact material and non-intentionally added substances, but changes nothing on a pack yet.
Two of these change artwork. Food-contact packs made of recycled PET carry FSSAI's rPET symbol, showing the recycled percentage, and/or the line "The packaging material is made with recycled PET", and the recycler must be one FSSAI lists on its packaging standards page (opens in a new tab) (approved manufacturers as on 10 September 2025). And a sweet box or a pouch with a stapled header card now needs another way to close.
What must plastic packaging print under the EPR rules?#
Rule 11 of the Plastic Waste Management Rules decides it. Since the amendment of 30 October 2023 (opens in a new tab), each plastic pack must carry, printed in English, the name and registration certificate number of the producer, importer or brand owner generated through CPCB's centralised portal: rigid packaging from 1 July 2024, plus multilayer flexible packaging, sachets and pouches. Single-layer flexible packaging and carry bags add their thickness; compostable and biodegradable plastics carry CPCB's certificate number. Packs exempted under rule 26 of the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, and packs where printing it isn't technically feasible, need CPCB's approval and carry the information on the outer pack.
Since 1 July 2025, that information can sit in a barcode or QR code printed on the pack, and whoever's registration it carries must tell CPCB which option it uses. A pack with recycled plastic must also meet IS 14534:2023 and carry a mark showing its recycled content, plus FSSAI's marking where it touches food (rule 11(2), as substituted on 31 March 2026). Registration happens on CPCB's EPR portal (opens in a new tab).
Who registers? The EPR guidelines, as amended on 14 March 2024 (opens in a new tab), list producers "including micro and small enterprises", importers and brand owners among the entities that must register on CPCB's portal (paragraph 6.1). Their list of entities with EPR obligations leaves out micro and small producers and brand owners (paragraph 4), and a micro or small producer's EPR target passes to the supplier of its plastic raw material, though the producer must still meet the recycled-content target (paragraph 7.8). So a pouch supplier registers whatever its size. A micro or small brand owner's position isn't settled by the text: it is outside the obligations, yet "brand owner" stays on the list of those who register.
The checks we add at pre-press, as our own practice rather than a legal requirement:
- Reserve space for the marking early: the registration line in plain English on the back panel, or a QR code holding it in a clear patch, test-scanned on a printed proof on the real material and curve.
- Mark recycled content correctly, including FSSAI's rPET mark or statement when recycled PET touches food.
- Keep ink off the food side. We flag any request to print inside a pack, a lid liner or a wrap.
- Design closures without staples: tuck flaps, heat seals, labels or tape.
Is there such a thing as FSSAI-approved packaging?#
Not for the design, as far as we can find. We found no provision in the Act, the Packaging Regulations or the Labelling and Display Regulations under which FSSAI approves a label or a pack's artwork before print. The duty sits with the food business, and food safety officers sample and seize food in the market (section 38 of the Act).
Even the vegan logo, which FSSAI endorses on application, works this way: its FAQ on vegan logo endorsement (opens in a new tab) says "the endorsement is for the product and not for size/ type of packaging material used", and a change only to the front-of-pack design needs no new application. What FSSAI does approve is narrower: licences and registrations, non-specified foods and ingredients (product approval at FSSAI's headquarters before a licence, as FoSCoS's eligibility document (opens in a new tab) explains) and the recyclers allowed to make food-contact rPET.
So "FSSAI approved" on a pack is a risk, not a selling point. In July 2026 FSSAI issued notices to three companies over misleading label claims and objected to "FSSAI Approved" on one product: "According to FSSAI, the claim 'FSSAI Approved' could create the false impression that the product has been specifically endorsed or approved by the regulator", Business Today reported (opens in a new tab) on 6 July 2026. The honest description of a well-made pack is "designed to FSSAI's rules", with the licence number in its place.
Do packaging makers need an FSSAI licence? The Act defines a food business as one doing any stage of manufacture, processing, packaging, storage, transport or distribution of food (section 3(1)(n)), so a contract packer that fills food into packs needs FSSAI registration or a licence. A converter that only makes empty pouches, cartons or tubs has no category in FoSCoS's list of kinds of business (the version modified on 10 September 2026), and we found no FSSAI rule requiring it to hold a licence. A recycler making food-contact rPET needs FSSAI's authorisation, and plastic packaging makers register under the plastic rules. If your unit also packs food, ask your state's food safety department.
What should a brand owner ask the printer for?#
Here is how the work splits on a pack, as we see it. It's our reading of the rules above, not a legal allocation, and your contracts can move the details.
Before you sign off a run, ask your converter for:
- The certificate of conformity from an NABL-accredited lab for the food-contact layer, with migration results.
- The material specification, naming each food-contact layer's Indian Standard.
- An ink declaration to IS 15495:2020, and where the ink sits in the structure.
- Its CPCB registration number, and whose registration your marking will carry.
- For recycled PET, the recycler's FSSAI authorisation and declaration of compliance.
- A printed proof on the real material, to check the marking, QR code and legal panel at actual size.
If the pack is part of a launch, our checklist for starting a food brand puts these steps in order with the licence and the store. The design side follows in our guides to product label design and food packaging design, and Gulf packs have their own rules in our guide to packaging for the Gulf.
Frequently asked questions#
Can food be wrapped in newspaper in India?#
No. Regulation 3(11) of the FSS (Packaging) Regulations, 2018 bars newspaper or any such material for storing and wrapping food, and FSSAI says that includes soaking up oil from fried food. Its West Region repeated the direction on 5 June 2026 (opens in a new tab) after action against a Mumbai vada pav vendor.
Is recycled plastic allowed for food packaging in India?#
Only recycled PET, made by a recycling process FSSAI has authorised under its guidelines of 23 May 2025, and marked with FSSAI's rPET symbol and/or "The packaging material is made with recycled PET". The plastic rules allow recycled plastic around ready-to-eat food only once FSSAI notifies standards and regulations for it (rule 4(1)(b), as substituted in September 2021 (opens in a new tab)), and FSSAI's amended regulation speaks only of recycled PET, so get a regulatory opinion before any other recycled plastic touches food.
Does a small food brand need EPR registration?#
The text doesn't settle it for a micro or small brand owner: the EPR guidelines leave it out of the EPR obligations but still list brand owners among those who register on CPCB's portal. Brand owners above that size carry the obligations and register, and your pouch supplier must register as a producer whatever its size. Ask your State Pollution Control Board or an EPR consultant, in writing, before you print the marking.
Does FSSAI approve packaging designs or labels?#
We found no provision for it. FSSAI sets the rules, licenses food businesses and approves some products and recyclers, but nothing we found in the Act or its packaging and labelling regulations asks it to approve artwork before print. A regulatory consultant or a lab checks your artwork; FSSAI's officers check products in the market.
What does food grade packaging mean?#
Material made of substances that are safe and suitable for their intended use, which won't endanger health or unacceptably change the food (regulation 2(1)(b)). In practice: the right Indian Standard for the material, migration tests within the limits, and a certificate of conformity from an NABL-accredited lab.
Get the material right before the artwork#
Most packaging problems start with a pouch chosen on price, artwork designed onto it, and paperwork chased after the run. Do it the other way round: pick a compliant material with its certificate, then design the pack around it. If you're planning a new pack, tell us about the product and where it sells, or see how we approach packaging design for food brands.
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Written by
Co-founder, Marketlube
Althameem Ali researched, edited and approved this post. Marketlube is a growth partner in Calicut building brands, websites, CRMs and campaigns for businesses across Kerala, India and the Gulf.
