No milk, no ‘paneer’ label as FSSAI moves to bar non-dairy analogues from using name

Products made from vegetable oils, fats or proteins as substitutes for milk constituents may no longer be allowed to use the name “paneer”, with the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) proposing a nationwide regulatory change aimed at preventing consumers from being misled about what they are buying or eating. The food regulator has issued draft amendments that would restrict the manufacture and sale of analogue products as paneer and require businesses already registered in the dairy-analogue category to stop using the term in their product names, labels and marketing.

The proposal is contained in the draft Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restrictions on Sales) Amendment Regulations, 2026, notified this week. FSSAI has proposed inserting a new clause in Regulation 2.1.1 of the 2011 regulations specifically covering “paneer made of constituents not derived from milk”, effectively reserving the name for products conforming to the prescribed dairy standard.

What will change

Under the proposal, food products designed to resemble paneer but made wholly or partly by replacing milk-derived constituents with non-milk ingredients would not be permitted to be represented simply as paneer. Products already licensed or registered under FSSAI’s “Analogue in Dairy Context” category would have to discontinue the use of “Paneer” in their nomenclature, labelling and marketing if the draft regulations are finalised in their present form.

The distinction is significant because conventional paneer is a standardised dairy product made by coagulating milk and separating the resulting curd from whey. Analogue products, by contrast, can use ingredients such as vegetable oils, fats and plant proteins to reproduce some of paneer’s appearance, texture or functionality, often at a lower production cost.

Such products are not necessarily adulterated merely because they contain non-dairy ingredients when manufactured and sold under the appropriate regulatory category. FSSAI’s proposed intervention is directed primarily at preventing these products from being passed off or presented to consumers as conventional milk-derived paneer.

‘Paneer’ reserved for milk product

FSSAI said the amendment was being proposed to prevent consumers from being misled about the nature and composition of the product. The move would establish a clearer regulatory distinction between genuine dairy paneer and analogue products that may look or function similarly but have a different ingredient composition.

The proposal follows increasing scrutiny of analogue paneer across the country. Several states, including Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka, have already acted against the manufacture or sale of non-dairy products represented as paneer, while food safety authorities have stepped up checks on restaurants, manufacturers and other food businesses.

The issue has also become increasingly relevant for restaurants and institutional food services, where consumers may have little opportunity to examine the packaging or ingredient list of the product used in a prepared dish. A clearer distinction in nomenclature and marketing is intended to make it harder for a cheaper analogue product to be substituted without the consumer knowing what is being served.

Draft open for 60 days

The proposed restrictions are not yet final. FSSAI has invited objections and suggestions from stakeholders and members of the public and will consider submissions received within 60 days from the date on which copies of the Official Gazette containing the notification are made available.

The draft has been issued with the previous approval of the Central government under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. Once the consultation period ends, FSSAI can consider the representations received before deciding the final form of the amendment.

If adopted, the change would have implications for manufacturers, retailers, restaurants and other food businesses dealing in dairy analogues. They would still have to comply with the regulatory framework applicable to such products, but could no longer rely on “paneer” as the product identity where the composition does not meet the milk-derived standard.

For consumers, the proposed rule seeks to make a basic distinction unmistakable at the point of sale — a product sold as paneer should actually be derived from milk, while a substitute made with non-milk constituents must be identified differently.