To sell a food as vegan in India you apply to FSSAI: Form A with supporting documents and a fee of INR 25,000 per product or variant, scrutiny by the authority, approval in Form B, then endorsement of the vegan logo on your license through the FoSCoS portal. An amendment notified in May 2026 makes the logo mandatory on approved packs from 1 July 2027. A third-party mark like V-Cert Vegan adds international verification on top — it never replaces FSSAI endorsement.
Who needs this process
Anyone selling, marketing or advertising a food as vegan in India. The Food Safety and Standards (Vegan Foods) Regulations, 2022 made India one of the only markets where a vegan claim is a regulated statement rather than voluntary marketing: the claim is lawful only for products that comply with the statutory definition and carry FSSAI's vegan logo. That covers domestic manufacturers, brand owners selling through Indian retail and e-commerce, and — with an extra layer — foreign brands, whose products additionally may not enter India without a vegan certificate from the recognized authorities of the exporting country. If you are still deciding whether the Indian market justifies the pathway, the broader picture is in our vegan certification in India guide; this article assumes you have decided and walks the mechanics.
Before you apply: what the definition commits you to
The 2022 regulations define vegan foods more strictly than casual usage. The product must not be, or be made from, ingredients of animal origin — explicitly including additives, flavorings, carriers, enzymes and processing aids, the places where animal-derived inputs hide from ingredient lists. Animal testing is excluded for any purpose unless a regulatory authority mandates it. And the producer must apply precautions to avoid cross-contamination with non-vegan materials. Read your own formulation against that definition before spending anything: a milk-derived carrier in a flavor, a shellac coating, or gelatin in a vitamin premix each ends the application. The document work this forces — supplier declarations for every at-risk input — is the same work any serious vegan verification requires, which matters later.
The application, step by step
- Step 1 — assemble the document set. Applicant and license details, the product's complete ingredient and processing-aid information, a self-declaration that the product is free from animal-origin inputs, packaging material details, and the tentative label artwork showing where the vegan logo will sit.
- Step 2 — file Form A and pay the fee. The application goes to FSSAI with a fee of INR 25,000, paid through FSSAI's e-payment channel. The fee is per application, and each product and each variant needs its own — flavors and pack variations are not bundled under one form (FSSAI vegan-logo guidelines, 2022).
- Step 3 — scrutiny. FSSAI examines the application and documents. Requests for clarification and label corrections are routine at this stage, and response speed on your side is the main variable you control in the overall timeline.
- Step 4 — approval in Form B. A successful application receives FSSAI's approval in Form B, the document that authorizes the vegan claim for that product.
- Step 5 — endorsement through FoSCoS. You then apply to your licensing authority through the FoSCoS portal to have the vegan logo endorsed on the FSSAI license for the product. The endorsement, not the approval letter alone, is what ties the logo to your license.
- Step 6 — print the logo. The approved pack carries FSSAI's vegan logo — the green square-framed symbol with a stylized V and sprouting leaf. Under the May 2026 amendment, displaying it on approved vegan food packages is mandatory from 1 July 2027, so label artwork should be updated as part of the process, not deferred.
The import route: Form I
Foreign brands carry the pathway twice. At the border, vegan foods may not be imported into India without a certificate issued by the recognized authorities of the exporting country (FSS Vegan Foods Regulations, 2022; USDA Foreign Agricultural Service report IN2022-0057) — and a 2025 draft amendment formalizes the certificate's format as Form I, attesting compliance with India's vegan definition, the no-animal-testing requirement and contamination controls. On the shelf, the same product then needs the FSSAI logo pathway like any domestic one. Exporters should sequence this deliberately: confirm what your origin country's recognized authority can actually issue before committing launch dates, because that certificate is outside both your control and FSSAI's.
After endorsement: making the same dossier work twice
The quiet upside of India's strict process is that completing it leaves you holding a verification-grade document set: full formulation with processing aids, supplier declarations on animal-origin status, cross-contamination controls, an animal-testing position. That is substantially the same evidence an independent vegan certification review examines. For brands selling beyond India — where the FSSAI logo is a domestic mark that foreign buyers generally do not recognize — adding an international third-party mark after endorsement is the low-marginal-effort move: the documents exist, the review is a remote desk review with no site visit, and the quote is scoped to the products you list. Typical desk review: 5–10 business days from complete documentation.
Frequently asked questions
How much does the FSSAI vegan logo application cost?
FSSAI's published fee is INR 25,000 per application, paid through its e-payment channel, and each product and each variant requires a separate application under the vegan-logo guidelines issued in 2022. Budget accordingly for large ranges: ten variants means ten applications. The fee goes to FSSAI and is separate from any third-party certification you choose to add afterwards.
How long does FSSAI vegan logo endorsement take?
FSSAI does not publish a binding service timeline, and duration in practice depends on scrutiny rounds — how quickly you answer clarification requests and correct label artwork. Companies with complete documents and compliant draft labels move fastest. Plan it as a project of weeks to months rather than days, and start well before pack-printing deadlines, especially with the logo becoming mandatory on approved packs from 1 July 2027.
Is the vegan logo mandatory on the pack?
Yes, on a deadline. The 2022 regulations tied lawful vegan claims to FSSAI compliance and its logo, and the Food Safety and Standards (Vegan Foods) Amendment Regulations notified in May 2026 make displaying the logo on approved vegan food packages mandatory from 1 July 2027. Products approved earlier should update artwork before that date.
Can I apply for several product variants in one application?
No. Under FSSAI's vegan-logo guidelines, each product and each variant needs its own Form A application with its own fee. Multiple variants are not bundled under one form, which is a meaningful planning and budgeting difference from certification schemes that quote a whole catalog in one review.
Does a V-Cert certificate help my FSSAI application?
Not formally — FSSAI runs its own scrutiny and no third-party certificate substitutes for any step of it. Informally, the document discipline overlaps almost completely: supplier declarations, processing-aid records and testing-policy statements prepared for one process serve the other. Most exporters sequence FSSAI first for the Indian market, then add an international mark for buyers elsewhere using the same dossier.