Summary: The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has notified the Food Safety and Standards (Vegan Foods) Second Amendment Regulations, 2026, on 28th September 2026. The amendment further modifies the Food Safety and Standards (Vegan Foods) Regulations, 2022, particularly the compliance requirements applicable to imported vegan food products. The amendment follows the earlier draft notification issued on 28th February 2025, which proposed replacing the existing reference to a format specified by the Food Authority with Form-I of the regulations. The final amendment provides that the new provisions will come into force from 1st April 2027. Regulation 5(3) is amended to specifically refer to Form-I, which contains a certificate to be issued by the recognised authority of the exporting country for products seeking Vegan logo endorsement. The prescribed Form-I captures details relating to the country of dispatch, consignor/exporter, certificate and recognised authority, consignee/importer, countries of origin and destination, transport and storage conditions, product description, manufacturer, batch or lot number, net weight, packaging, manufacture or packaging date, expiry date, product composition and intended purpose. It also requires declarations concerning animal testing, precautions against unintended presence of non-vegan substances, segregation of vegan and non-vegan materials, cleaning measures where production lines are shared, and backward traceability of ingredients. The certificate is to be completed by an authorised official and bear the official stamp. The notification also records the original 2022 notification and the subsequent amendment dated 21st May 2026.
FOOD SAFETY AND STANDARDS AUTHORITY OF INDIA
NOTIFICATION
New Delhi, the 28th September, 2026
F. No. ExpertcommitteeonVegan-1 stmeeting.— Whereas the draft of the Food Safety and Standards (Vegan Foods) Amendment Regulations, 2025 were published, as required under sub-section (1) of section 92 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 (34 of 2006) (herein after referred to as the said Act) vide notification of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India number F.No. Expert committeeonVegan-1 stmeeting, dated the 28th February, 2025 in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part III, section 4, inviting objections or suggestions from the persons likely to be affected thereby, before the expiry of the period of sixty days from the date on which the copies of the Official Gazette containing the said notification were made available to the public;
And whereas, the copies of the said Official Gazette were made available to the public on the 4th March, 2025;
And whereas, the objections and suggestions received from the public in respect of the said draft regulations have been considered by the Food safety and Standards Authority of India;
Now, therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) and clause (v) of sub-section (2) of section 92 of the said Act, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, with the previous approval of the Central Government, hereby makes the following regulations further to amend the Food Safety and Standards (Vegan Foods) Regulations, 2022, namely:
1. (1) These regulations may be called the Food Safety and Standards (Vegan Foods) Second Amendment Regulations, 2026.
(2) They shall come into force on 1st April, 2027.
2. In the Food Safety and Standards (Vegan Foods) Regulations, 2022, –
(a) in regulation 5, in sub-regulation (3), for the words “the format as specified by the authority is accepted”, the words and figures “Form-I of these regulations” shall be substituted.
(b) after regulation 5, the following shall be inserted, namely: –
FORM – I
Certificate to be issued by the recognised authority* of the exporting country
(See sub-regulation 3 of Regulation 5)
[For products applied for Vegan logo endorsement as per Food Safety and Standards (Vegan Foods) Regulations, 2022]
| Country of dispatch | |
| 1. Consignor/Exporter
Name Address |
2. Certificate number Recognised Authority the of exporting Country and its contact details: |
| 4. Consignee/Importer:
Name Address |
|
| 5. Country of origin: | |
| 6. Country of destination | |
| 7. Conditions for transport/storage to be maintained | |
| 8. Product Description | |
| (a) Name of the product/s (Nearest food category as per Food Safety and Standards Regulations) | |
| (b) Producer/manufa cturer(name and address) | |
| (a) Lot no./Batch no. | |
| (b) Net weight: | |
| (c) No. of unit/packages | |
| (d) Type of packaging | |
| (a) Date of manufacture/packaging | |
| (e) Date of expiry (If applicable) | |
| 9. Product composition | 10. Intended purpose |
| 11 Whether the product is meant for repacking or relabeling in destination country.
If Yes, then details of premises for Inspection clearance. |
YES/NO |
–
| 12. Declarations
The undersigned Authorised Official certifies that the product(s) described above satisfies the following requirements: (b) The food products have not involved any animal testing for any purpose including safety evaluation, unless provided by any Regulatory Authority. (c) The stages of production, processing, and distribution are designed with appropriate precautions in conformity with good manufacturing practices to avoid the unintended presence of non- vegan substances. (d) Vegan and non-vegan raw materials are stored separately. The production line of the above company is separate from non-vegan products or ingredients. (e) If not separate thorough cleaning or comparable measures in conformity with good manufacturing practices have been carried out before production of vegan products commences and also for all associated machinery, equipment, utensils, and surfaces. (a) Backward traceability of ingredients and their source is established. |
|
| 13. Authorised official: | |
| Name: | Designation: |
| Date: | Signature: |
| Official stamp: | |
* Regulatory Authority or Recognised accreditation body or Recognised third party certifying body of Vegan Foods in the exporting country.
RAJIT PUNHANI, Chief Executive Officer
[ADVT.-III/4/Exty./3 59/2026-27]
Note: The Food Safety and Standards (Vegan Foods) Regulations, 2022, were published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part III, section 4, vide notification number F. No. SS-T0T1(NOTI)/1/2025-Standard-FSSAI, dated the 10th June 2022 and was last amended vide notification number F. No. SS-T0T1(NOTI)/1/2025-Standard-FSSAI, dated the 21st May 2026.
