LUCKNOW, Sept. 21 -- Food businesses in Uttar Pradesh will no longer be able to make older food products appear fresh by repacking them. The Food Safety and Drug Administration department has directed that packaged food products must carry the actual date of manufacture or processing, rather than a later date of repacking.

According to an FDSA press release, the decision follows special inspections of food manufacturing units, during which food safety officials found instances of products being stored for long periods after manufacture before being repacked into smaller consumer packs. In some cases, the packing date was being mentioned on the label instead of the actual date of manufacture.

The department has now clarified that for foo...