Dimapur, December 3 (MExN): Nagaland government on Monday, decided to ban gutkha and panmasala, being food products in which tobacco and nicotine are widely used as ingredients, as per the order Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restrictions on Sales) Regulations, 2011 Act.
According to a press release issued by Food Safety Commissioner cum Commissioner & Secretary to the Government of Nagaland, gutkha and panmasala are articles of food in which tobacco and nicotine are widely used ingredients now-a-days and therefore, it is expedient to prohibit gutkha and panmasala in the State of Nagaland.
The Commissioner of Food Safety of the State is empowered under Section 30 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 to prohibit in the interest of public health, the manufacture, storage distribution or sale of any article of food in the State of Nagaland. Therefore, in pursuance of regulation 2, 3, 4 of the Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restrictions on Sales) Regulations, 2011, the manufacture, the storage, the sale or the distribution of gutkha and panmasala containing tobacco or nicotine as ingredients, by whatsoever name it is available in the market, is prohibited in the State of Nagaland in the interest of Public Health, with immediate effect.
