Uttar Pradesh will require sweet shops and manufacturing establishments to display the use-by date of sweets kept for sale or storage from October 15, 2026, extending a specific freshness disclosure requirement to loose sweets across the state. The Food Safety and Drug Administration said the measure is intended to help consumers assess the safety and freshness of products before purchase.
The requirement follows inspections and enforcement drives at sweet manufacturing and retail establishments in recent months. According to the department, consumers were often not given clear information about when a sweet was made or how long it remained suitable for consumption. The absence of that information made it difficult for buyers to make informed decisions, particularly when purchasing loose sweets without standard packaging.
An order issued by Food Safety and Drug Administration Commissioner Roshan Jacob states that the usable life of sweets varies according to their type and nature. Different varieties may have a shelf life ranging from one day to 30 days. The department said the quality, taste and freshness of sweets can deteriorate over time, making the use-by date an important piece of information at the point of sale.
Under the new arrangement, sellers and manufacturing establishments will have to clearly display the use-by date for sweets that are displayed or stored for sale. The information is intended to show customers how long a particular sweet is considered suitable for consumption. The order does not prescribe one common shelf life for all sweets; instead, the date is expected to reflect the characteristics of the product being sold.
The department said use-by or expiry information is already mandatory for packaged sweets under the existing system. Loose sweets, however, had not been covered by a similar explicit requirement. The new order therefore addresses an information gap in a segment where products are commonly displayed in open trays or containers and purchased without individual packaging.
The Food Safety and Drug Administration linked the measure to the consumer-protection and public-health objectives of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. Section 18(1)(a) of the Act provides for the protection of human life and health and consumer interests in relation to food-safety standards and fair practices in the food trade. Section 30(2)(d) provides for effective and uniform implementation of food-safety standards and other prescribed requirements while ensuring transparency, reliability and objectivity.
The change will require food-safety enforcement to move beyond checking product conditions and premises to also checking whether sellers are displaying the required information. The department’s recent inspections identified the lack of clear freshness information as a consumer concern, and the new rule gives inspectors a specific disclosure requirement to examine at sweet shops and manufacturing establishments.
In a separate measure, Uttar Pradesh has prohibited the use of ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol in milk and dairy-product processing units across the state. The use-by date requirement for sweets will take effect on October 15, 2026, when sellers and establishments will be expected to display the relevant information for products offered for sale or held in storage.
