Dahi Row [FSSAI revises Directive]

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) revised its January 2023 directive on printed curd packet labels after facing severe backlash from southern states over the “imposition of Hindi.” The new directive now allows milk federations to use the label “Curd” along with the local nomenclatures in brackets. Know more about this controversy and the background in this article. This topic comes under the current affairs segment of the UPSC syllabus.

Dahi Thayir Row Background

The controversy began when the FSSAI issued a directive in March 2022 asking milk cooperatives and private dairies in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to use the term “Dahi,” the Hindi word for curd, along with prevalent regional names in brackets before August 2022. 

• The Tamil Nadu Cooperative Milk Producers Federation Limited, which markets its dairy products under the brand name Aavin, has declined to use the term “Dahi” and has stated that it will only use the Tamil term “Thayir.”
• The January notification was intended to replace the name “Fermented Milk” with designations “Dahi” and “Yoghurt” while allowing the use of any other designation (prevalent regional common name) with the term “dahi” in brackets on the label.

Revised Directive from FSSAI:

• After receiving criticism, the FSSAI modified its previous directive issued in January. As per the revised directive, Food Business Operators (FBOs) are now allowed to use the term “Curd” along with any other prevalent regional common name in brackets on the label.
• However, the revision has raised concerns among certain political leaders who believe that the use of Hindi is an attempt to impose it on non-Hindi speaking states. Many southern state political leaders called the January notification an attempt to “impose Hindi.”

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