Maharashtra state government imposes a one-year ban on analogue paneer due to non-compliance with food safety standards

The Maharashtrian government has banned the production and selling of “analogue” paneer or paneer which is not made from milk for a period of one year considering the issues related to health and breach of food safety standards by several parties. Life imprisonment and a fine of up to ₹10 lakh could be the penalty for those who violate the rules according to the latest order by the government.

The FDA stated that a number of hotels, restaurants, caterers, and food premises were using analogue paneer in place of conventional paneer without informing customers about this substitution through menu cards, bills or display boards.

Analogue paneer is a dairy-free substitute made from vegetable oil, starch, emulsifier, and other ingredients instead of dairy fat. The production cost of analogue paneer is much less than conventional paneer and contains low protein content.

A gazette notification issued by Maharashtra Food Safety Commissioner Tukaram Mundhe banned the manufacture, processing, preparation, packaging, storage, distribution, wholesaling, and retailing of analogue paneer in the state.

An FDA official speaking to PTI has revealed that the Food Safety and Standards Act allows such banning orders to be issued for a period not exceeding one year.

“There is a provision in the act itself to ban such products for just one year. As far as our information goes, analogue paneer has very low nutritive value. However, there is no legal basis for us to impose a total ban on such products,” the official said.

The FDA has issued a warning that serving analogue paneer as paneer without declaring it to consumers will be an unfair trade practice under the Food Safety and Standards Act.

Depending on the extent of harm caused, offenders could face imprisonment — from six months with a fine of ₹1 lakh to life imprisonment and a minimum fine of ₹10 lakh in cases where consumption of unsafe food results in death, the FDA said.

The order followed a year-long enforcement and surveillance drive by the FDA, which found that routine inspections, sampling and awareness campaigns had failed to curb the sale of analogue paneer.

As many as 35.4% of the samples analysed during the drive did not conform to prescribed standards, indicating that existing enforcement measures and labelling requirements had proved inadequate to protect consumers, it said.

Inspections revealed that the analogue paneer was mostly transported and sold without any original pack, mandatory label, invoices, batch number or traceability documents, thus it became impossible to find out the origin of the product, the release stated.

BJP Member of Legislative Assembly Vikram Pachpute, who had earlier brought up the issue in the State legislature for the prohibition of analogue paneer, appreciated the move made by the Government, stating that it was a pioneering step towards consumer health safety.

It is worth mentioning that he further asked for the inspection of the cheese analogues being sold in the market as regular cheese.