The FSSAI & Legal Metrology label checklist (2026): verify before you print

A wrong label costs you three times

Once at the printer (the reprint). Once at the distributor (rejected stock). Once at the shelf (the launch window your competitor used). Compliance text isn’t the glamorous part of packaging design — it’s the part that decides whether the glamorous part ever reaches a shelf. So check it before ink meets substrate, not after.

Checklist 1 — the FSSAI side

1. Name of the food — the true, descriptive name, not just the brand name.
2. Ingredients list — descending order by weight; compound ingredients broken out where required.
3. Nutritional information panel — per 100 g/ml and per serve, with %RDA declarations. (Single-ingredient staples now carry exemptions unless you make a nutrition claim — check your category.)
4. Veg / non-veg mark — correct symbol, correct size, on the display panel.
5. Allergen declaration — stated clearly, near the ingredients list.
6. FSSAI logo + licence number — in contrast colour to the background; brand owner’s licence, plus the manufacturer’s/packer’s if different.
7. Date marking — date of manufacture/packaging AND “Expiry/Use by.” (“Best before” is optional, additional — not a substitute.)
8. Batch / lot / code number — traceability isn’t optional.
9. Name & address of manufacturer/marketer/packer; country of origin + importer details for imports.
10. Special logos where applicable — fortified (+F), organic (Jaivik Bharat), and category-specific marks.

Checklist 2 — the Legal Metrology side

1. Net quantity — standard units, correct format, no qualifying words that undercut it.
2. MRP — “inclusive of all taxes,” printed, not an afterthought.
3. Unit sale price — per g/ml/unit, where the rules require it alongside MRP.
4. Consumer care details — name, address, contact for complaints.
5. Month & year of manufacture — Metrology’s own date requirement, alongside FSSAI’s.
6. Declaration sizes scale with your pack — letter heights are prescribed by principal-display-panel area. A declaration that’s legal on a 1 kg pouch can be illegal on a 50 g sachet. Check the table for your dimensions.

Checklist 3 — where designers get it wrong

The regulations don’t fail most packs. Artwork files do.

• Barcode quiet zones cropped by an eager dieline.
• Compliance text placed across a fold or seal line — legal on screen, unreadable on the pouch.
• FSSAI logo losing its contrast rule on dark or busy backgrounds.
• Veg/non-veg mark scaled down below prescribed size “for aesthetics.”
• MRP as a pasted sticker where printing is required.
• Panel-area math ignored — declarations sized for the mockup, not the final pack dimensions.

Every one of these is a reprint we’ve seen someone else pay for.

the shelf forgives ugly. the inspector forgives nothing.

What’s changed — and what’s coming

Labelling rules moved four times in 2025–26. In force or incoming: nutrition-labelling exemptions for single-ingredient foods with a −10% tolerance on declared nutrient values (Sept 2025), coffee-chicory front-of-pack declarations (from 1 July 2026), and a 2026 amendment covering non-retail containers and small-pack exemptions (from July 2027). In draft: bold, larger %RDA declarations for added sugar, saturated fat and sodium, plus a mandatory milk logo. If your pack is printing in 2026, design the nutrition panel with room for that bold-RDA future — a pack that anticipates the amendment skips the next reprint.

The 60-second pre-print ritual

Read the final print PDF — not the design file. Tick all 22 points above. Check declaration heights against your actual pack dimensions. Confirm the barcode scans from a printed proof. Get the licence numbers verified in writing. Then release to print.