India is a big part of the kosher supply chain, and its food regulator just changed the labelling rules. If you buy Indian spices, extracts, oils or gums — or you make them in India and ship under the OU symbol — these changes are worth knowing now, before the deadlines arrive.
What changed
On March 30, 2026, India’s food regulator (FSSAI) issued the Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) First Amendment Regulations, 2026. It does two main things.
First, it changes the rules for bulk containers — the drums, totes, sacks and cartons that ship ingredients from one business to another, not to shoppers. Starting July 1, 2027, these containers must carry traceability details and be clearly marked “NON-RETAIL CONTAINER.” This is the part that matters most for ingredients, because most Indian kosher product travels as a raw material inside exactly these containers, not on a store shelf.
Second, it updates the nutrition-label exemptions — clarifying when a full nutrition panel is required, with changes for infant nutrition, lightly processed raw farm goods, and some low-energy supplements and special-diet foods.
FSSAI also set a steady schedule: labelling changes now take effect each year on July 1, with at least a year’s notice before they are enforced. So there is a clear runway — here, until mid-2027 — to get bulk-container labels and paperwork in order. The move fits a wider global trend toward tighter labelling and traceability, alongside similar steps by the FDA and EFSA.
Why India matters to the OU world
The reason this matters is scale. OU Kosher has worked in India for decades, and the country acts like “a supermarket to the world.” The OU certifies thousands of Indian products across roughly 200 factories — dairy in the north, spices in the east, vegetables (especially gherkins) in the south, tea in the west, and chemicals in the center. OU inspectors based in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore handle the oversight.
That OU-certified base includes some of India’s largest names. In spices and extracts, AVT (including AVT McCormick and AVT Natural Products in Cochin), Synthite, Kancor (part of the Mane group) and Plant Lipids supply spice oils, oleoresins, natural colors and essential oils used worldwide. Jubilant makes pharmaceutical and specialty ingredients, and Marcatus QED, a major gherkin exporter, has even pushed its own suppliers to get OU certified as a quality standard.
India is also a leading source of gums and hydrocolloids, especially guar gum, which are widely used as texturizers and stabilizers.
Because certifications change over time, the most up-to-date check is always our own records. For an industrial ingredient, the best public check is the company’s Letter of Certification (LOC) — not the consumer product search, which is for finished retail items.
The bottom line: line up your kosher records with the new rules
Here is the key point. The new FSSAI traceability rules and kosher record-keeping want the same thing — knowing exactly what is in a container, where it came from, and being able to prove it. Letters of certification, plant codes, lot numbers and ingredient sources are already the backbone of OU supervision, and the 2027 rules ask Indian producers to put much of that same information right on the bulk container.
That overlap is a head start, not extra work. OU-certified producers in India — and U.S. manufacturers buying from them — can use the time until mid-2027 to match their kosher paperwork to the new FSSAI traceability fields, so one clean record works for both. And if a nutrition-label change shifts how a product is classified or made, run any formula or sourcing change past the OU before locking it in.
Planning ahead? Talk with your OU Rabbinic Coordinator about lining up your kosher records with the new FSSAI traceability fields — with plenty of time well ahead of the 2027 deadline.
