FSSAI labelling changes on 1 July 2027: what sweet shops and bakeries must change

If you print boxes or labels for a sweet shop or bakery, circle one date in your 2027 diary: Thursday, 1 July.

That is the day the First Amendment to the FSSAI labelling regulations comes into force. For most sweet shops and bakeries it changes three things: how bulk containers are labelled, which logos the smallest packs must carry, and the warning on sugar-free sweets made with aspartame-acesulfame. It does not bring in front-of-pack warning labels. That question is still with the Supreme Court.

Checked against official sources on 28 October 2026.

I read the notification itself, the Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) First Amendment Regulations, 2026, published in the Gazette on 24 March 2026, and compared it with the consolidated regulations (Version VIII, 9 September 2025). We make packaging at Jagannath Polymers in Jaipur, and our sister company, Jagannath Labels, prints labels. So we read rules like this from the printing side. I am not a food lawyer, and your food-safety consultant should confirm what applies to your products.

Why does it start on 1 July 2027?

Because FSSAI decided in January 2025 that labelling changes would start on one fixed day a year. Its press release of 15 January 2025 says amendments to the labelling regulations will come into force on 1 July, with at least 180 days between notification and that date.

This amendment was notified on 24 March 2026, less than 180 days before 1 July 2026. So the next possible 1 July was 2027, about 15 months away.

The 180-day rule also tells you when to look again. Anything FSSAI notifies by about 2 January 2027 could also start on 1 July 2027. Anything later would wait for 1 July 2028. So the first week of January 2027 is when we would check the FSSAI notifications page for anything new.

Change 1: bulk (non-retail) containers

We start with the definition. The regulations define a non-retail container as one not meant for direct sale to the consumer, where the food goes through further business before it reaches the consumer.

We see a sweet shop meeting these containers on two sides:

1. What you buy. Khoya, chhena, ghee tins, sugar sacks, cartons of dry fruit, maida, cake premix. From 1 July 2027, your suppliers must label them the new way.
2. What you send. Bulk trays or crates of sweets to a caterer, a hotel, a wedding kitchen or another shop. A carton of retail boxes going to a distributor.

Here is what changes, side by side, as we read the two texts:

Four points matter most for a sweet shop, in my reading.

First, the storage instruction moves onto the container. A crate of milk sweets for a wedding caterer should say "Keep refrigerated" on the label itself, and not in the challan alone.

Second, net quantity can go in the delivery document, but it must be traceable. So we would put the same batch number on the challan and on the container.

Third, a mixed crate needs the details for every sweet in it. Kaju katli, gulab jamun and barfi in one crate means three names, three dates and three sets of storage notes.

Fourth, the outer carton can skip the details if the labels of the retail boxes inside give "access" to all of them. In a closed brown carton, I do not see how they can. We would label the outer carton.

A returnable crate or drum that cannot hold a label may carry the information in documents or electronically instead, as long as it can be traced to that container.

Whether a tray going from your own central kitchen to your own outlet counts as "non-retail sale" is a fair question for your food safety officer. We would label it anyway. It costs one sticker, and it lets you trace a complaint back to the batch.

A bulk label a sweet shop can copy

We would print this on a tamper-evident label, one per container:

1. NON-RETAIL CONTAINER - NOT FOR DIRECT SALE TO CONSUMER
2. Name of each food in the container
3. FSSAI logo and licence number
4. Packed on, use by, and "Keep refrigerated" where needed
5. Batch or lot number (the same one goes on the challan)
6. Packed by: your business name and full address

Our suggestion is that the challan then carries the ingredients, the veg or non-veg declaration and the net quantity for each food, against that batch number.

Change 2: packs of 100 sq cm or smaller

I should say first that small packs already had a relief. Under regulation 8(1), a pack with a surface area of 100 sq cm or less can move the ingredients list, batch number, nutrition, additives, licence number and logo to the multi-unit pack.

The amendment adds regulation 8(1B). From 1 July 2027, any logo notified under the FSS regulations may be left off a pack of 100 sq cm or less, provided it appears on the multi-unit pack. Think of logos such as the fortification logo, the Jaivik Bharat organic logo or the vegan logo.

The veg mark is a different matter. It is a symbol with its own rule, and the FSSAI FAQ on these regulations says it stays even on the smallest pack. The new line talks about logos, not that symbol, so I would keep the veg mark on every pack.

How big is 100 sq cm? I read "surface area of the package" as the whole outside of the pack, and not the front panel alone. A box 5 cm by 5 cm and 2 cm deep has an outside area of 90 sq cm. Sample boxes and single-piece packs often sit close to that line. We would measure them with a ruler, and ask a consultant if a pack is borderline.

Change 3: sugar-free sweets

Sugar-free sweets need the closest look, and we would check them before anything else. If your range uses aspartame-acesulfame salt, or aspartame and acesulfame potassium together, the warning changes on 1 July 2027. It must say the product is "Not recommended for" three groups: phenylketonurics, children, and pregnant or lactating women. Copy the exact wording and punctuation from Schedule II of the notification, not from this page.

Even if you use aspartame alone or acesulfame potassium alone, your warning changes too. The amendment replaces the words "pregnant and lactating mothers" with "pregnant or lactating women" wherever they appear. For a food with a mixture of sweeteners, it adds that the information may not need repeating for each one.

This is the five-minute check I would do first. Take your sugar-free box off the shelf and read the sweetener line against the new wording.

Smaller changes that may touch you

1. Nutrition labelling. The exemption for raw and minimally processed foods is reworded, to cover products "such as wheat, rice, cereals, pulses, fruits and vegetables" and products of a single ingredient. If I sold plain kaju or badam in gift boxes, I would ask my consultant whether the nutrition table can go. Roasted and salted nuts have two ingredients, so they would not qualify as single-ingredient food.
2. Fortified foods. A fortified product must say "fortified with" and name the fortificant, with the logo, and may add the line "Sampoorna Poshan Swasth Jeevan".
3. Vegan logo. A separate amendment, notified in May 2026, makes the official vegan logo mandatory on approved vegan foods from 1 July 2027, as reported by SCC Online. If we baked vegan cakes, we would read that notification as well.

Front-of-pack warning labels: should you wait?

Not law yet, and in our view nothing to reprint for in 2027.

FSSAI has proposed red, hexagon-shaped "high in sugar, salt or fat" warnings on the front of packs. The Supreme Court questioned its plan for a year of voluntary compliance and reserved its order on 28 September 2026, as reported by LawBeat. As of 28 October 2026, I found no judgment, no draft regulation and no final thresholds.

Mithai is sugar and fat by nature. But with the thresholds still open, nobody can tell you today which of your sweets would carry a warning. If the rule follows the usual 1-July pattern, a notification after early January 2027 would point to 1 July 2028. The court could set its own timeline, though, so we will be watching the news after the judgment.

What we would do now is keep the front of a new box design flexible. Leave a clear area on the front panel instead of covering every inch with gold foil.

What to do before 1 July 2027

Here is the list we would pin up in the packing room:

1. In the first week of January 2027, check the FSSAI notifications page. Anything notified by about 2 January could also start on 1 July 2027.
2. By March 2027, list every pack you sell, with its outside area in sq cm, the logos on it and any sweeteners used.
3. List the bulk containers you send out. Design the non-retail label and a matching challan format.
4. Ask your suppliers of khoya, ghee, dry fruit and premix to show you their new bulk label before July.
5. Plan print quantities so that boxes with the old sugar-free wording run out by 30 June 2027.
6. Approve every Diwali 2027 box against the new text, because all of them will be printed after 1 July. Our Diwali 2027 calendar has the dates.
7. Keep a copy of the notification in your FSSAI file.

For the full list of what a packed mithai box must carry today, see our guide to FSSAI labelling for sweet shops.

I would start with your smallest pack and your sugar-free box. In most shops, that is where 1 July 2027 will be felt first.