Companies must follow labelling norms on product packaging: Consumer Affairs Ministry

Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan on Friday said companies should ensure details such as date of expiry, MRP and information about the manufacturer are not getting missed and must be legible on packages of all products.

He urged consumers to file complaints, if they found any information missing on the package of any product. The Minister added that this will create deterrence in the minds of the manufacturers who indulge in unfair practices or pushing sub-standard products into the market.

Replying to queries during a virtual conference, Paswan said that that the Department of Legal Metrology, Guntur in Andhra Pradesh has registered a complaint against the pharmaceutical distributor of medicine ‘Seder OM’.

He said that raids were conducted on the premises of the distributor and seller under section 15 of the Legal Metrology Act, 2009 and packets of the medicine have been seized.

According to the complaint received, the name of the manufacturer, helpline number and date of expiry were not visible. It was further alleged that the size of the numerals and letters of the declaration was less than 1 mm and were not easily legible on the medicine packages.