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What are the possible ways to indicate Expiry Date or Minimum Durability of a food in Sri Lanka? And what are the differences between them with respect to quality and safety indications?

March 27, 2019
ANSWER

According to Food (Labelling and Advertising) Regulations 2015,

  • The date of expiry in respect of food contained in a package or a container shall be expressed in terms of (a) day, month and year; or (b) year, month and day; or (c) month and year.
  • Where the year is expressed in four digits, the format may be either day, month and year or year, month and day
  • Where the year is expressed in two digits, the format shall be day, month and year; or year, month and day, provided the indications – DD/MM/YY representing day, month and year or YY/MM/DD representing year, month and day as the case may be, shall be printed above or in close proximity to the digits.
  • Where only month and year are indicated the format shall be month and year; or year and month, provided the indications – MM/YY representing month and year; or YY/MM representing year and month as the case may are printed above or in close proximity to the digits.
  • Where only the month and year are indicated as the date of expiry, the date of expiry of that product shall be deemed to be the last day of that month.
  • The date of expiry shall declared in numerical form preceded by either the word(s) “Expiry” or “Use before” or “Use by” or “Best Before”, or the abbreviation “Exp” in English, together with “xx” in Sinhala and “xx” in Tamil.

 

The differences between them with respect to quality and safety indications has not been established.

 

Reference

Minister of Health. (2015). Food (Labelling and Advertising) Regulations. Regulation 05.

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