Government of India has notified the Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restrictions on Sales) Regulations, 2011 dated 1st August 2011, under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, which prohibit the use of tobacco and nicotine as ingredients in any food products. The said Regulation 2.3.4 lays down as under
Product not to contain any substance which may be injurious to health: Tobacco and nicotine shall not be used as ingredients in any food products.
So far, 33 States / Union Territories have issued orders for implementation of the Food Safety Regulations banning manufacture, sale and storage of Gutka and Pan Masala containing tobacco or nicotine. (Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Chandigarh, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Haryana, Punjab, Delhi, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Nagaland, Andaman & Nicobar, Daman & Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Sikkim, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, J&K, Assam, West Bengal, Tripura, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Puducherry).
(c)For Pan Masala, Regulation 2.4.5 (30) of Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Regulation, 2011 issued under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, prescribes that,
Every Package of Pan Masala and advertisement relating thereto, shall carry the following warning, namely Chewing of Pan Masala is injurious to health.
Further, under the National Level Public Awareness campaign, this Ministry has launched media campaigns both in national as well as regional electronic channels focussing on the harmful effects of smokeless tobacco use. In addition an outdoor media campaign along with a press advertisement has also been carried out.
The Ministry has notified the new pictorial health warnings which have come into effect from 1st April, 2013. Three (3) sets of warnings each, have been notified for smokeless and smoking forms of tobacco.
The Ministry has notified the Rules to regulate depiction of tobacco products or their use in films and TV programmes. As per these rules all films and TV (Indian and Foreign) depicting tobacco products or their use have to screen a ˜health spot™ of 30 second duration and a ˜disclaimer™ of 20 second duration on the harmful effects of tobacco use, in the beginning and the middle of the films and TV programmes.
This information was given by the Minister for Health & Family Welfare Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad in written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today.