In a significant order, the Madras High Court has directed the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare as well as the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to forewarn customers about the possible presence of micro and nano plastics (MNPs) in packaged drinking water, salt and sugar sold through Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) bottles and in plastic packs.
A special Division Bench of Justices N. Sathish Kumar and D. Bharatha Chakravarthy, constituted to hear forest and environment related issues, ordered that the labels on the PET bottles as well as the sugar and salt packets must contain the warning ‘This water may contain micro/nano plastics’ or ‘This salt/sugar may contain micro/nano plastics’ in red colour font of size 10.
The Ministry, as well as FSSAI, were directed to issue an appropriate notification, in compliance of the court order, within four weeks and issue instructions to all companies that sell drinking water, salt and sugar in PET bottles and other plastic packaging to comply with the new labelling requirements scrupulously. The court also called for a status report from the FSSAI by April 10, 2026.
It was during the hearing of a case related to the ban imposed by Tamil Nadu government on single use plastics, amici curiae T. Mohan, Chevanan Mohan, Rahul Balaji and M. Santhanaraman told the court that the banned plastics somehow find their way into the pristine forests of the Nilgiris Biosphere and other parts of the Western Ghats and end up being consumed by the wild animals.
