Food-Grade Packaging in Corporate Catering: What HR and Admin Teams Should Be Checking

In early June 2026, ahead of World Food Safety Day, FSSAI restated a rule it has had on the books since 2018: newspapers must not be used for packing, wrapping, storing, covering or serving food. The Western Region issued a directive after a Mumbai vada pav vendor was found wrapping food in newsprint, and FSSAI and the BMC acted jointly. Weeks later, Maharashtra went further, extending the prohibition to recycled printed paper across restaurants, hotels, bakeries, sweet shops and caterers — including its use as a liner inside food containers.

The reasoning is specific. Newspaper printing ink contains pigments, additives and heavy metals including lead, which migrate into food — and migrate fastest when the food is hot, oily or moist. Newsprint is also handled and stored in conditions that have nothing to do with food hygiene.

Now, no corporate caterer serving a technology park in Gurgaon is wrapping meals in newspaper. So it would be easy for an HR or admin team to read this news, note that it concerns street vendors, and move on.

That would be a mistake — because the principle underneath the directive applies directly to office food, and the specific rule is much broader than most people realise.

What the regulation actually says

The Food Safety and Standards (Packaging) Regulations, 2018 do more than name newspapers. Three provisions matter for corporate catering:

Newspaper or similar material must not be used for storing or wrapping food — and that extends to covering food, serving food, and soaking up oil.

Printed surfaces of packaging must not come into direct contact with food.

Inks used on packaging must meet specified safety standards.

Read that second point again. It isn’t a rule about newspapers. It’s a rule about printed surfaces — any printed surface — touching food. Branded containers, printed paper liners, printed wraps: if the printed side faces the food, the issue is the same one FSSAI described in the newspaper directive, just with better-quality ink.

The directive named caterers explicitly, alongside cloud kitchens and QSRs. This is not a street-vendor regulation.

Why packaging is the most visible and least audited part of your food programme

Here’s something worth noticing about corporate catering.

Almost everything a caterer does happens somewhere your employees will never see — the kitchen, the cold store, the loading bay, the vehicle. The one part of the operation that physically enters your office, gets handled by every employee, sits on their desk, sometimes goes into a microwave, and ends up in your bins, is the packaging.

It is the most visible thing your caterer produces. And in most vendor evaluations, it is the thing nobody asks a single question about.

Companies audit FSSAI licences and HACCP certificates. They rarely ask what the food-contact layer of the container is made of, whether it is rated for the temperature the food goes in at, or whether the printed side faces inward.

Nine places packaging risk actually hides in office catering

This is where the newspaper directive becomes relevant to you, translated into the things a bulk kitchen actually uses.

1. Printed liners and wraps. Rotis, parathas and fried snacks are commonly wrapped in paper. If that paper is printed, recycled printed stock, or anything other than food-grade parchment or butter paper, it falls under the same principle FSSAI applied to newsprint. Maharashtra’s order named recycled printed paper specifically, including as container liners.

2. Newspaper under fried snacks at events. This one does still happen in corporate catering — not in the daily lunch, but on a tea counter at an offsite or a town hall, where samosas or pakoras get set down on newsprint to absorb oil. The regulation prohibits exactly this use. Hot and oily is the worst-case combination for ink migration.

3. Aluminium foil with acidic food. Foil is standard in bulk catering and generally fine — but acidic preparations like tamarind-based, tomato-heavy or vinegar-containing dishes held in direct foil contact can cause aluminium to migrate. Foil for a dry sabzi is a different decision from foil for a sambar.

4. Thin or non-food-grade plastics with hot food. Plastic containers vary enormously in what temperature they tolerate. A container rated for cold storage that receives food at 65°C is a different risk from one specified for hot fill. Expanded polystyrene, banned in several states, is particularly unsuited to hot oily food.

5. Recycled plastic in food contact. Recycled plastics carry restrictions for food-contact use precisely because the input stream is uncontrolled. “Recycled” and “food-grade” are not interchangeable, though procurement decks frequently treat them as if they were.

6. Printing facing inward. Branded and printed containers are good marketing. If the printed surface is the food-contact surface, the regulation is unambiguous, whoever printed it.

7. Cling film directly on hot food. Common, convenient, and dependent entirely on the film’s temperature rating and composition. Worth asking about specifically.

8. Bulk transport vessels. Casseroles, hot boxes and GN pans have food-contact surfaces too. Scratched or pitted stainless steel, damaged non-stick coating, and worn plastic inserts are all failure points that no certificate covers, because they develop over time through use.

9. Serviceware at the counter. Printed paper plates, low-grade disposable cutlery, and the paper under a plated snack. Same principle, service side.

The sustainability trap

This is the point that catches good companies, and it deserves its own section.

An organisation sets a laudable goal: eliminate single-use plastic from the cafeteria. The caterer switches to compostable or biodegradable containers. Everyone reports the win.

But biodegradable is not the same as food-grade, and it is certainly not the same as food-grade at the temperature your food is served. Some plant-fibre and moulded-pulp containers carry coatings or binders whose suitability depends on the specific product and its rating. Some perform well with dry, cool food and poorly with hot, oily gravy — which is most of an Indian lunch.

The right question isn’t “is this compostable?” It’s “what is the food-contact layer, what is it rated for, and does it hold at the temperature and oil content of what we’re actually serving?”

Sustainability and food safety are usually compatible. FSSAI itself points toward food-grade parchment, certified biodegradable materials, and multilayer packaging where the contact layer meets norms. But they’re compatible only if someone checks the contact layer. A sustainability commitment implemented without that question can quietly downgrade your food safety.

The reheating problem nobody owns

One more thing specific to office food.

Employees reheat. They take the container the caterer delivered, put it in the pantry microwave, and heat it — often in packaging never specified for that.

Notice that Karnataka’s April 2026 nutrition advisory went as far as discouraging microwave-heated food in government settings altogether. Whatever one makes of that position, the practical reality in most offices is that reheating happens daily and nobody has decided which container it should happen in.

Two things fix this cheaply. Specify whether your delivery containers are microwave-safe, and label them clearly. And where they aren’t, provide pantry-side reheating vessels so employees have an obvious alternative. This costs almost nothing and closes a genuine gap.

What to ask your catering partner

What is the food-contact layer of every container, wrap and liner you use for our meals?

Are any printed surfaces in contact with food?

Do you use recycled paper or recycled plastic anywhere in food contact?

What temperature is each container rated for, and what temperature does food go in at?

Which of our containers are microwave-safe, and are they labelled as such?

What do you use for acidic preparations, and is it different from what you use for dry dishes?

Can you produce food-grade certification and migration test reports from your packaging suppliers?

What is used at event and tea counters for fried items — and is anything ever placed on newsprint?

How often are transport vessels inspected for scratches, pitting or coating damage, and when were they last replaced?

If we move to sustainable packaging, can you show that the replacement is rated for hot, oily food?

Question 7 is the one that separates operators. A caterer who buys packaging seriously has supplier documentation. A caterer who buys on price has a rate card.

How to check it yourself in five minutes

Next delivery, before anyone eats:

Look at the inside surface of every container and wrap. Is there printing on it?

Check for a food-grade marking — the cup-and-fork symbol, a resin code, a temperature rating.

Feel the container with hot food in it. Excessive softening, warping or odour suggests it isn’t rated for that temperature.

Ask for the packaging spec sheet. Not the certificate — the spec sheet naming the material and its rating.

At your next event, walk the tea counter and look at what fried snacks are sitting on.

Then put the answers in the contract. Packaging specifications belong in a catering agreement alongside menu and pricing, and they almost never are.

Where we stand

Promach Hospitality is a pure vegetarian bulk catering operation running over 10,000 meals a day out of a 20,000 sq ft central kitchen in Sector-63, Noida, with HACCP certification, ISO 22000 compliance and current FSSAI licensing.

Packaging is the last control point in a chain we manage end to end. Food leaves our kitchen under temperature-controlled logistics engineered around NCR traffic, and packaging is what has to hold that integrity through the final leg to your counter. It’s the point where a well-run cold chain either arrives intact or quietly stops mattering.

Ask us questions 1 through 10. Ask for the spec sheets. We’d rather you checked the inside of the container than took the certificate on the wall as the whole answer.

Frequently asked questions

Why did FSSAI ban newspaper for food packaging? Printing ink on newsprint contains pigments, additives and heavy metals including lead, which can migrate into food — particularly food that is hot, oily or moist. Newspapers are also handled and stored in unhygienic conditions. The prohibition sits in the Food Safety and Standards (Packaging) Regulations, 2018 and covers wrapping, storing, covering, serving and soaking up oil.

Does the newspaper rule apply to corporate caterers? Yes. FSSAI’s June 2026 directive named caterers alongside restaurants, cloud kitchens, QSRs and street vendors. The related requirement — that printed surfaces must not contact food — applies to any printed packaging, not only newsprint.

Is biodegradable packaging automatically food-safe? No. Biodegradability and food-grade suitability are separate properties. What matters is the food-contact layer and its rating for the temperature and oil content of the food being served. Some compostable containers perform well with cool dry food and poorly with hot gravy.

What packaging is approved for food contact in India? FSSAI points to food-grade parchment or butter paper, certified biodegradable materials, and multilayer packaging where the food-contact layer meets prescribed norms. Materials must comply with the Packaging Regulations, 2018, and inks must meet specified safety standards.

How can a company check its caterer’s packaging? Inspect the inside surface of containers for printing, look for food-grade markings and temperature ratings, request packaging supplier spec sheets and migration test reports, and check what fried items are served on at event counters. Then write the packaging specification into the catering contract.

Reviewing an office catering contract in Noida, Delhi or Gurgaon? Bring the ten questions and ask for our packaging spec sheets. \[Book a kitchen visit →\]