FSSAI milk logo: blue square on milk, paneer, ghee packs from July 2028
By Ishita SenCulture & Heritage Editor, Peepals Sanskriti
Representative image: tookapic / Pixabay
FSSAI notified on 6 November 2026 that all milk and milk product packs must carry a white milk drop on a blue square logo from 1 July 2028.
What Happened
Packets of milk, curd, paneer, ghee, ice cream and other milk products sold in India will have to carry a standard dairy logo, a white milk drop inside a blue square, under new rules from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). The regulator notified the Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Second Amendment Regulations, 2026 on Friday, 6 November 2026, and they were published in the Gazette of India on Monday, 9 November. Food businesses have until Saturday, 1 July 2028 to comply. The logo must be printed on the front of the pack, at a minimum size that depends on how large that front panel is.
Key Facts
- The rule covers all milk and milk products, including composite milk products, according to summaries of the notification.
- Design: a white milk drop on a blue square background, placed on the principal display panel, the part of the pack a shopper normally sees first.
- The rule takes effect on 1 July 2028.
- The smallest logo, for front panels up to 100 square centimetres, has a 6 mm square; the largest, for panels over 2,500 square centimetres, has a 16 mm square.
- Products in which non-milk ingredients replace milk are not milk products, and coverage of the rule says the logo is meant partly to help consumers tell genuine dairy from such analogues.
- The logo was first proposed in a draft released in February 2025; the sizes in the final rule appear unchanged from that draft.
- The change is made by adding a provision to Schedule I of the 2020 Labelling and Display Regulations.
Why It Matters
Milk and its products sit at the centre of the Indian diet and of many traditional food practices. Curd, ghee, paneer and milk sweets appear in everyday meals, in festival food and, in the case of ghee, in religious offerings. At the same time, supermarket shelves now carry a growing range of products that look like dairy but are made partly or wholly from vegetable fats or plant ingredients. For a shopper reading small print, the difference is not always obvious.
The new logo is a simple, visual answer to that problem. Instead of having to read an ingredient list, a buyer will be able to look for the blue square with the white drop to know that a pack is a milk product under the food law. Imitation products, in which non-milk ingredients take the place of milk, do not count as milk products and so would not carry it.
The long lead time, more than a year and a half, gives dairies, co-operatives and sweet makers time to redesign and reprint their packs.
One question remains open. A separate amendment made in March 2026, which takes effect on 1 July 2027, allows makers to leave the logo off packs whose whole surface is 100 square centimetres or less, although outer packs holding several such small packs must still carry it. A compliance analysis notes that FSSAI has not said clearly how this small-pack exemption works alongside the new rule, so the treatment of the very smallest dairy packs may need clarification.
Peepals calculation: The required square grows from 6 mm on the smallest packs to 16 mm on the largest, about 2.7 times wider (16 ÷ 6 ≈ 2.67) and about 7 times the area (16 × 16 = 256 square mm against 6 × 6 = 36 square mm; 256 ÷ 36 ≈ 7.1). From notification on 6 November 2026 to the deadline on 1 July 2028, the industry has a little under 20 months to change its packs. Our calculation from the reported figures.
| Front panel area | Logo square (minimum) | Milk drop height | Milk drop width |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up to 100 sq cm | 6 mm | 4.56 mm | 3 mm |
| Over 100 to 500 sq cm | 8 mm | 6.08 mm | 4 mm |
| Over 500 to 2,500 sq cm | 12 mm | 9.12 mm | 6 mm |
| Over 2,500 sq cm | 16 mm | 12.16 mm | 8 mm |
Impact
Short-term: Nothing changes on shop shelves yet. Dairies and food companies will begin planning new pack designs, and some may adopt the logo early.
Long-term: From July 2028, shoppers should be able to tell genuine milk products from look-alike products at a glance, which may make it harder to pass off imitation products as dairy.
Who is affected: Households buying packaged milk and milk products, dairy co-operatives and private dairies, sweet and ice-cream makers, packaging suppliers, and makers of dairy-like products that are not milk products.
What to watch next: The rule applies from 1 July 2028; the separate small-pack exemption applies from 1 July 2027, and any FSSAI clarification on how the two fit together.
Key Takeaway
From 1 July 2028, every pack of milk or milk products in India must show a blue square with a white milk drop, sized to the pack, under FSSAI's new labelling rule.
Questions and Answers
What is the new FSSAI milk logo?
It is a white milk drop on a blue square that must appear on the front panel of all milk and milk products, under the Labelling and Display Second Amendment Regulations, 2026.
From when must milk packets carry the FSSAI logo?
The rule comes into force on 1 July 2028. It was notified on 6 November 2026 and published in the Gazette of India on 9 November 2026.
Will dairy analogues or imitation products carry the milk logo?
No. Products in which non-milk ingredients replace milk are not milk products under the rules, and the logo is meant partly to help shoppers tell genuine dairy from such analogues.
How big must the milk logo be?
It depends on the front panel: at least a 6 mm square for panels up to 100 square centimetres, rising to 8 mm, 12 mm and 16 mm for larger panels.
Disclaimer: Prepared by the Peepals newsroom from publicly available sources with AI assistance. Information is accurate to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication and may change. Images may be representative. Not professional advice. Report an error via our contact page.
By Ishita Sen, Culture & Heritage EditorCovers Culture & Heritage and more for Peepals Sanskriti. All stories by Ishita Sen
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Ishita Sen is a pen name of the Peepals Global Editorial Team, which researches, fact-checks and publishes every story. The portrait is an illustration.
