Food export compliance and labelling for Indian exporters

Exporting food from India takes an Importer-Exporter Code, an FSSAI licence and, for some products, APEDA registration or Export Inspection Council certification. The label itself follows the importing country's law, with the FSSAI logo and licence number on it. What each step is, and where it comes from.

The export label follows the importing country

FSSAI's Western Region office set out the position in Public Notice (Import) 5/2026 of 7 May 2026: exporters holding a valid FSS licence may export food “wherein such product(s) are expected to meet the standards/specifications applicable in the importing country”. Citing FSSAI's FAQ on licensing, the same notice says the other requirements of the FSS (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2020 “may not be applicable for the exported products”.

So the label on an export pack is built to the destination's rules, not to India's domestic label: the EU's Regulation 1169/2011 for Europe, the FDA's Nutrition Facts rules for the United States, Arabic under GSO 9 for the Gulf, English and French for Canada. That is the part most exporters get wrong, and it is the part LabelYog builds.

What FSSAI still asks on an export label

The notice states that exporters who hold an FSSAI licence shall show the FSSAI logo and licence number on the food product label, printed or as a barcode or QR code, so the product can be traced. It also states that the manufacturer's details cannot be made mandatory on the export pack, because of trade-secret concerns; customs can verify them through documents in specific cases.

The registrations you need before you ship

An Importer-Exporter Code. Section 7 of the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act, 1992 is plain: “No person shall make any import or export except under an Importer-exporter Code Number granted by the Director General” of Foreign Trade.

An FSSAI licence. The notice states that all exporters shall possess a valid FSS licence, citing FSSAI Order No. 1-351/FSSAI/Imports/2013 of 21 January 2015, regulation 2.1.2 of the FSS (Licensing and Registration of Food Businesses) Regulations, 2011 and section 31 of the FSS Act, 2006, under the kind of business “Trade/Retail-Trader/Merchant-Exporter” or “Manufacturer-Exporter-Manufacturer”.

APEDA registration for scheduled products. One of the functions the APEDA Act, 1985 gives the Authority is the “registration of persons as exporters of the scheduled products”, and section 12(1) requires “every person exporting any one or more of the Scheduled products” to apply to be registered. APEDA's scheduled products include fruits, vegetables and their products, dairy products, confectionery, biscuits and bakery products, cereal and cereal products, groundnuts and peanuts, pickles, papads and chutneys, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, and cashew nuts. Basmati rice is a Special product, listed in the Act's Second Schedule. Confirm the current procedure on APEDA's site before you apply.

Pre-shipment certification for notified products

The Export Inspection Council was set up under section 3 of the Export (Quality Control and Inspection) Act, 1963, and under section 6(a) the Central Government may notify commodities that must undergo quality control or inspection before export. The EIC lists, among others, fish and fishery products, bivalve molluscs, dried fish, milk and milk products, honey, egg and egg products, poultry meat and meat products. Certification is either consignment-wise inspection or approval of a food safety management system in the processing unit. Check whether your product is notified before you book the shipment.

Organic claims on export packs

APEDA is the secretariat for accreditation under the National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP), and states that organic products for export are certified only if produced, processed and packed to the NPOP standards. An organic claim on an export label needs that certification behind it.

How LabelYog builds the destination label

Choose the market and LabelYog builds the label that market's regulator expects from one recipe: the nutrition panel in its accepted format, the ingredients and allergens in its rules and language, the dates, the importer block and the barcode, for every export market it covers. LabelYog draws the FSSAI logo only on a label for India, so add the logo and licence number to the export artwork yourself.

At a glance

• Importer-Exporter Code from DGFT (FTDR Act 1992, s 7)
• FSSAI licence of kind Trade/Retail-Trader/Merchant-Exporter or Manufacturer-Exporter-Manufacturer
• APEDA registration if the product is a scheduled product (APEDA Act, s 12(1))
• EIC certification if the product is a notified commodity
• NPOP certification behind any organic claim
• The label built to the importing country's law
• FSSAI logo and licence number on the label, printed or as a barcode or QR code

Questions

You can try the free tools without an account, read what a paid plan adds on pricing, or see how we compare with other label software before deciding anything. Every market we build for has a rule-book page of its own.