Recycled plastic may return to food packs: FSSAI drafts rules for PE and PP, 60 days for objections

India’s food regulator wants recycled plastic back in food packaging, but only two kinds of it and only on strict terms. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) set out the change in a draft dated Monday, 2 November 2026, which amends the Food Safety and Standards (Packaging) Regulations, 2018.

The two plastics are polyethylene (PE), the stuff of carry bags, pouches and many bottles, and polypropylene (PP), used for tubs, boxes and takeaway containers. The 2018 rules, in force since 1 July 2019, shut out every kind of recycled plastic from packing, storing, carrying or serving food.

Two routes, each with a condition

The first route covers PE and PP made by chemical recycling through the monomer route, as defined in Indian Standard IS 14534. Used plastic is broken back into its basic building blocks and made into new polymer. That output may touch food only if it is judged equal to virgin plastic and clears every test set for virgin plastic.

The second route is narrower. Plastic recycled solely from used food-grade packaging could go into the outermost layer of a multilayer pack. The layers inside must stop any substance from moving out of that recycled layer and into food, and the pack as a whole must stay within the migration limits already on the books.

Only recycled PET is cleared so far

Until now the door has opened only for recycled PET, the clear plastic of water and soft-drink bottles. The environment ministry changed the Plastic Waste Management Rules on 17 September 2021, FSSAI issued a direction on 18 January 2022, and an amendment on 28 March 2025 formally allowed recycled PET for food. Packs made from food-grade recycled PET must carry a logo under FSSAI guidelines.

The draft does not permit anything yet. Industry and consumers have 60 days, counted from the day copies of the Gazette reach the public, to send objections or suggestions to the FSSAI chief executive officer at FDA Bhawan, Kotla Road, New Delhi. The final rules also need the Centre’s approval.