New Delhi: The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has withdrawn the order which said that state-owned dairy product manufacturers should label curd with the Hindi word dahi, followed by the regional names in brackets.
In a press release, the FSSAI said that it had received many representations on the omission of the term “curd”, from the Standards of Fermented Milk Products. It has been decided that food business operators (FBOs) “may use the term curd along with any other designation (prevalent regional common name) in brackets on the label.”
It said that the labels can now read “Curd (Dahi)”, “Curd (Mosaru)”, “Curd (Zaamut daud)”, “Curd (Thayir)” and “Curd (Perugu)”, etc.
The earlier order, which had prompted allegations of Hindi imposition from the southern states, had said, “Dahi can be labelled as per the following examples. Dahi (Curd), Dahi (Mosaru), Dahi (Zaamut daud), Dahi (Tayir), Dahi (Perugu) or Dahi (Tair) etc., based on the regional nomenclature used in different states for Dahi.”
Several milk federations in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu had objected to the use of the Hindi word ‘dahi’ instead of regional nomenclatures.