New Delhi: Plastic wrapping used for snacks and containers used to store food could soon contain recycled material. India’s food safety regulator has proposed allowing certain kinds of recycled plastic in packaging that comes in contact with food, as long as specific safety standards are met.
In a draft notification issued Monday, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) proposed amendments to the Food Safety and Standards (Packaging) Regulations, 2018, which would allow recycled polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) to be used in packaging that touches food. PE is commonly used in making plastic bags and bottles, and PP in food containers.
Currently, food packaging that comes in contact with food is generally made from virgin plastic (that has never been used), or from materials such as paper, glass and metal that meet prescribed safety standards. The proposal marks a possible expansion of FSSAI’s rules on recycled plastic in packaging.
Earlier, a 2018 regulation had barred recycled plastic from being used to package, store, carry or dispense food. FSSAI later allowed recycled PET or polyethylene terephthalate (the plastic commonly used in water and soft drink bottles) subject to the regulator’s standards and guidelines in March 2025. No such pathway currently exists for recycled PE and PP, which the latest draft seeks to create.
The new draft rules set two conditions.
The first is that the recycled plastic must be produced through chemical recycling, specifically the “monomer route”. Plastics are made of long chains of repeating units, called polymers. This method uses heat, catalysts, or solvents to break those chains back into their original building blocks, or monomers, which are then joined together again to make plastic of “virgin” quality, or brand-new plastic that has never been used.
“Recycled Polyethylene (PE) and Polypropylene (PP) produced by Chemical recycling process… via the monomer route, may be used for food-contact materials, only when the output (end product) is considered equivalent to virgin material and meets the criteria applicable to virgin material,” the draft notification states.
The second provision concerns recycled plastic made exclusively from food-grade packaging material. FSSAI has proposed allowing it only in the outermost layer of multi-layer packaging meant for food contact. Multi-layer packaging is the kind used in many snack pouches, where different plastic films are stacked together.
However, the inner layers must have adequate barrier properties to prevent substances from the recycled outer layer from migrating into the food. The packaging must also comply with existing prescribed migration limits.
“Recycled polymer derived exclusively from food-grade packaging material may be used in the outermost layer of multi-layer packaging material intended for food contact, provided that the inner layers possess adequate barrier properties to prevent migration of substances from the outermost layer into the food and also shall fulfil the already prescribed migration limits for packaging materials,” the notification reads.
Migration refers to the transfer of chemicals or other substances from packaging into the food it contains. The prescribed limits are intended to keep such transfers within acceptable safety thresholds.
The proposed provisions would be inserted into Regulation 4 of the 2018 packaging regulations. FSSAI has invited objections and suggestions from stakeholders and members of the public within 60 days from the date the Gazette notification is made available.
A shift in stance
The proposal marks the latest turn in FSSAI’s position on recycled plastic, which has changed considerably over the past few years.
The 2018 regulations banned the use of recycled plastic or newspaper for packaging food items from 1 July, 2019 onwards. That changed after the environment ministry amended the Plastic Waste Management Rules on 17 September, 2021, reversing the country’s ban on use of recycled plastic in food-contact materials.
FSSAI then issued a Direction on 18 January, 2022, authorising recycled plastics in food-contact materials, followed by a draft notification that covered recycled PET.
An amendment dated 28 March, 2025 then formally allowed recycled PET in packaging, storing, carrying or dispensing food, and FSSAI subsequently notified guidelines for it, including a mandatory logo on packaging made from food-grade recycled PET.
The approvals so far have been for PET. The 2 November draft appears to be the first proposal to extend the permission to PE and PP.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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