FSSAI notifies final vegan foods amendment
In a move to streamline plant-based labelling and prevent misleading market claims, FSSAI has published the final Food Safety and Standards (Vegan Foods) Amendment Regulations, 2026.
05 Jun 2026 | 96 Views | By Jiya Somaiya
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI)’s recent gazetted notification overhauls the visual identity of certified plant-based products by introducing strict, millimetric design specifications for a mandatory national “Vegan” logo.
Following a rigorous legislative lifecycle (which began as a draft proposal in December 2022 and underwent a thorough 60-day public and industry consultation phase), FSSAI has established a design layout that all approved food business operators (FBOs) must follow.
The amendment strictly substitutes Sub-regulation (2) of Regulation 4 under the principal Food Safety and Standards (Vegan Foods) Regulations, 2022. Moving forward, any product marketed as vegan cannot feature voluntary or creative plant artwork icons. Instead, it must carry a green square-framed symbol featuring a stylised “V” with a small sprouting leaf at the top centre, and the word “VEGAN” stamped directly underneath.
- Thickness of the arms of the “V” symbol: 7-mm
- Width of the “V” at its top section: 10-mm
- Width of the text box containing the word “VEGAN”: 7-mm
- Height of the “VEGAN” font text: 2-mm
- Size of the sprouting leaf or plant symbol: 3.25-mm
- Height measured from the base of the “V” to the plant: 3.3-mm
- Required gap between the base of the “V” and the text box: 1-mm
Total height and width of the square outer border: 15-mm
Furthermore, the regulation enforces exact ink replication parameters under the industrial CMYK colour standard model. Print layers are required to register a precise value of Cyan: 60, Magenta: 0, Yellow: 89, and Key/Black: 0 to produce the official, government-recognised green shade.
This standardised identifier addresses a transparency gap in the domestic retail landscape. Historically, products containing dairy matrices, milk solids, ghee, honey, or insect-sourced processing aids like shellac were broadly grouped under the green dot vegetarian symbol.
The new logo isolates genuine vegan lines, which are legally defined as foods entirely free of ingredients, additives, enzymes, or manufacturing processing carriers derived from animal sources.
The underlying framework also dictates that certified products must not undergo animal testing for safety evaluations unless explicitly mandated by statutory authorities.
This mark allows consumers to bypass long ingredient lists and pick plant-based items with complete analytical confidence.
Enforcement timelines
FSSAI has established an extended runway for manufacturers, importers, and packagers to re-engineer their current packaging moulds, update print plates, and completely exhaust legacy label stock.
The mandatory implementation and strict market enforcement of the updated logo specifications will officially take effect starting 1 July 2027.
Before deploying this official mark onto retail merchandise, FBOs must submit a separate application for each specific product variant or manufacturing site to clear the agency's verification systems. Distributing products with unauthorised vegan graphics or prematurely utilising the new layout outside the formal licensing pipeline after the compliance deadline will be prosecuted as a labelling violation under the parent Food Safety and Standards Act.