Pan Masala Packs Must Be Paper, Tin or Glass Now. Plastic and Foil Are Out.

What exactly did FSSAI change?

It added pan masala to a list of packaging materials, as row number 11. The list is called Schedule IV of the Food Safety and Standards (Packaging) Regulations, 2018. Until now it had ten rows, one for each kind of food. Milk. Oils. Fruit and vegetables. Sweets. And so on.

Row 11 is new, and it is short. Pan masala may be packed in:

• “Paper, Paper Board, Cellulose or other naturally derived materials” — and that material “shall be free from any plastic”;
• “Tin or glass containers”.

The notice is numbered F. No. RCD-09002/1/2026-Regulatory-FSSAI. It is signed by the Chief Executive Officer of FSSAI and dated 7 August 2026.

When did it start?

The same day it was published. 10 August 2026. The notice says it in one line: the rules “shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette”.

There is no later start date. There is no phase-in.

Do I get time to use up the pouches I have already printed?

The notice does not give you any. Read it end to end and there is no sentence about old stock, no grace period, and no last date for selling what is already packed.

Is pan masala itself banned?

No. This is about the pack, not the product. You can still make it and still sell it. The question the rule answers is only what the pack may be made of.

Did this come out of nowhere?

No. A draft was published on 28 April 2026 and the public had sixty days to object. The notice says those objections “have been considered”.

So the industry was told in April. The final rule came in August. That gap is the normal way a food rule is made in India: a draft, sixty days, then the real thing.

My pouch is paper on the outside. Is that enough?

No. The rule looks at the whole material, not the outer face. Most “paper” pouches are paper stuck to a thin sheet of plastic, or paper with a plastic film inside. That is what the rule shuts out.

Here are the actual words. The material “shall be free from any plastic including but not limited to Polyethylene, Polypropylene, Polyester, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), or any synthetic polymers, copolymers, or laminates”.

Read the last three words again. Laminates are named. A laminate is any material made by sticking layers together. If one of those layers is plastic, the pack is out.

What about the thin layer inside that keeps the masala dry?

If it is plastic, it is not allowed. The words “any plastic” and “not limited to” do the work here. The rule does not set a minimum thickness. It does not say five microns is fine and fifty is not. Any plastic means any plastic.

Aluminium foil is not plastic. Can I still use it?

No. Foil is banned by name, in the same sentence. The material must also be “free from Aluminium foil or metallised layers”.

A metallised layer is the shiny silver film you see inside many snack packs. It looks like foil but it is plastic with a fine coat of metal on it. Both are out.

So what is actually left?

Four things, and the rule names all four. Paper. Paper board. Cellulose or another naturally derived material. Or a tin or glass container.

That is the whole list. Nothing else is offered.

Then how do I keep the product dry?

The notice does not answer that, and it is honest to say so. It names what the pack may be made of. It does not name a barrier you may use instead of plastic, and it does not approve any particular paper.

This is the real work in front of the industry, and it is a supplier question, not a legal one. Before you pay for a print run, ask your packaging supplier for one thing in writing: a plain declaration that the material has no plastic, no polymer, no laminate, no aluminium foil and no metallised layer. Keep that paper. It is what you will show when someone asks.

Is this the first time plastic was banned on a pan masala pack?

No. It has been banned since 2016, under a different law. That law is the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016, made by the environment ministry. Two lines in it deal with pan masala directly, and they are almost ten years old.

What do those 2016 lines say?

One bans plastic sachets. The other bans plastic in any pack at all. Rule 4, sub-rule 1, clause (f):

“sachets using plastic material shall not be used for storing, packing or selling gutkha, tobacco and pan masala”

And clause (i), which is much wider:

“plastic material, in any form … shall not be used in any package for packaging gutkha, pan masala and tobacco in all forms”

Then what actually changed in August 2026?

Who enforces it. That is the honest answer, and it matters more than it sounds.

Before, this was an environment rule. The people behind it were the pollution control boards. Food officers had nothing to do with it, and for many businesses it stayed a distant thing.

Now the same prohibition sits inside the food rules. The person who checks it is the Food Safety Officer who already visits you. The thing at risk is the food licence you already hold.

Does the FSSAI notice mention the 2016 rules?

Yes, and that is the most important line in it. Row 11 has a third part, clause (c), which says the provisions of clauses (f) and (i) of rule 4 of the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016 “shall also apply”.

So FSSAI has not written a new ban. It has pointed at the old one and pulled it into food law.

Why does that matter to me?

Because two departments can now act on the same pack. The environment side was always there. The food side is new. Fixing the pack answers both.

Schedule IV calls itself a list of “suggestive” materials. So is row 11 only a suggestion?

Treat it as binding. But you should know why the question is a fair one.

The regulation that introduces this list — regulation 5 of the 2018 rules — says it in its own words:

“A list of suggestive packaging materials which may be used … is provided in Schedule – IV: Provided that this is an indicative list not restricting the use of any other packaging material complying with the specified standards.”

So the schedule was built as a helpful list of what you may use. It says plainly that it does not restrict anything. And FSSAI has now written a restriction into it.

Is that really true of the other ten rows?

Yes. We read every one of them. All ten are menus. Each lists what you may use for that kind of food, and every single one of them offers plastic or foil.

Milk products may use a “flexible plastic pouch”. Oils may use a “plastic pouch made of multi layered laminated or co-extruded structure”. Sweets may use “foil wrap”. Cereals, fish, honey, spices, drinks — the same shape every time.

Row 11 is the only row in the schedule that tells you what you may not use. It is the odd one out, and that is worth knowing before somebody tells you it is just a suggestion.

So could I argue with a Food Safety Officer about it?

We would not advise it, and here is the practical reason. Even if you set row 11 aside completely, the 2016 plastic waste rule still stands on its own and still says no plastic in any pan masala pack. You would win an argument about which rulebook applies and still be holding an illegal pouch.

The wording of row 11 is also not the wording of a suggestion. It says the material “shall be free from” plastic. Shall is the word law uses for must.

What counts as pan masala in law?

It has a written definition, and it is older than this rule. It sits at 2.11.5 of the food standards regulations of 2011:

“Pan Masala means the food generally taken as such or in conjunction with Pan, it may contain — Betelnut, lime, coconut, catechu, saffron, cardamom, dry fruits, mulethi, sabnermusa, other aromatic herbs and spices, sugar, glycerine, glucose, permitted natural colours, menthol and non prohibited flavours.”

If that describes what you make, this rule is about your pack.

What about plain supari, or mukhwas, or a mouth freshener?

Row 11 names pan masala only. The food rules treat supari as its own article of food, separate from pan masala — you can see it in the labelling rules, where supari carries a warning of its own.

But do not stop there. The 2016 plastic waste rule is written more widely, and it names gutkha, tobacco and pan masala. If your product falls in that family, the older rule may still reach you even where row 11 does not. If you are unsure which box your product sits in, ask your food safety adviser before you order packing.

Does this cover gutkha?

Gutkha has a bigger problem than its pack. Tobacco in food has been prohibited in India since 2011. The rule is one sentence:

“Tobacco and nicotine shall not be used as ingredients in any food products.”

So a food product with tobacco in it is not allowed at all, whatever it is wrapped in. The 2016 plastic waste rule names gutkha separately, alongside pan masala and tobacco.

I am a small unit with a registration, not a full licence. Does it apply to me?

Yes. The rule is written about the food and its pack. It does not have a small-business exception, a turnover limit, or a state where it does not run. It is a central regulation and it applies across India.

While I am reprinting, what does the label itself owe?

A warning that covers half the front of the pack. This is not new, but it is the thing most often got wrong, and you are about to redraw the artwork anyway.

The labelling rules say a pan masala pack must carry, in a rectangular box: “CHEWING OF PAN MASALA IS INJURIOUS TO HEALTH”, with a note that “the warning statement must cover 50% of front-of-pack of the label”.

Fifty per cent of the front. Not a corner, not a strip. If you are moving from a pouch to a carton or a tin, the front panel changes shape, and that box has to be redrawn with it.

What happens first?

A notice, not a seizure. The Food Safety and Standards Act calls it an improvement notice, and section 32 sets out what it must contain. The officer has to state the grounds, say exactly what you have failed to do, say what you must do to fix it, and give you a period to do it.

That period cannot be shorter than fourteen days. The Act says it plainly: “within a reasonable period (not being less than fourteen days) as may be specified in the notice”.

Can my licence be suspended?

Yes, and the Act sets out the order it happens in. If you do not comply with the improvement notice, “his licence may be suspended”. If you still do not comply, the Designated Officer may cancel it — but only “after giving the licensee an opportunity to show cause”.

What is the money?

Up to two lakh rupees, and there are two ways to get there.

Section 58 is the general one: “Whoever contravenes any provisions of this Act or the rules or regulations made thereunder, for the contravention of which no penalty has been separately provided … shall be liable to a penalty which may extend to two lakh rupees.”

Section 55 covers ignoring the officer: a business that “without reasonable ground, fails to comply” with what the Food Safety Officer has directed is liable to a penalty up to two lakh rupees as well.

If I disagree, can I appeal?

Yes, to the Commissioner of Food Safety of your state. Section 32 gives an appeal against an improvement notice, and against a suspension or cancellation of a licence. The Act says the Commissioner’s decision “shall be final”.

What should I do this week?

Pick up one of your own pouches and tear it. Look at the torn edge. If you can see a shiny layer, a silver layer, or a film peeling away from the paper, that pack is the subject of this rule.

Then make two calls. One to your packaging supplier, asking what the material actually is, in writing. One to whoever holds your artwork, because the warning box will have to be redrawn for a new pack shape.