The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) on Wednesday said it had initiated penal action against five e-commerce platforms over various non-compliances.
The action was taken for misleading claims related to food product ‘Happilo Premium Date Bites – Zesty Orange’, PTI news agency reported. The regulatory body has, over the past six months, stepped up crackdowns against food business operators (FBOs) and e-commerce companies. The food regulatory body said the crackdown was initiated under the FSS Act, 2006 and applicable FSSAI regulations.
“Penal action initiated against – Amazon, Swiggy Instamart, Bigbasket, Flipkart India and Zepto,” it said. It cited “various food safety and regulatory non-compliances” as the reason for the action. It said this includes “misbranding/ misleading claims, sale and display of prohibited/ poisonous food articles through e-commerce platforms. The penal action against the e-commerce platforms comes days after the food safety regulator said it was taking legal action against Nestle India Ltd. FSSAI said the step was being taken after finding that a baby food sample violated quality standards and two other infant nutrition products were promoted in contravention of the rules for such products, according to an earlier HT report . FSSAI said a sample of follow-up formula manufactured by the company was found to be substandard with respect to biotin content during laboratory analysis.
