India needs to alert its consumers

The issue of front-of-pack labelling on packaged foods has reached a critical stage in India. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is expected to finalise its Draft (Labelling and Display) Amendment Regulations, 2022 by mid-October as the three-month extension, it had sought from the Supreme Court, will end. In July this year, the apex court had directed the Central regulator to finalise the long-overdue regulation taking into consideration the more than 14,000 comments it received on the draft. Such high volume of comments on the draft, indicates that the stakes are high.

On the one hand, it is the big and powerful packaged food industry, which survives by selling its “bad” food as “good” food. On the other, it is about the health of millions of gullible Indian consumers. But also at stake, is the credibility of FSSAI. After all, it was in 2014, when an FSSAI-led expert group first recommended front-of-pack labels on foods, high in salt, sugar or fat. Eleven years later, the proposed draft is much weaker than before. The proposed star-based ‘Indian Nutrition Rating’ is not just regressive but misleading. It was adopted voluntarily in just a couple of countries. Worse, FSSAI chose it instead of the “warning” labels, which are adopted in several countries and endorsed by many in the Indian medical and public-health fraternity due to its fit-for-purpose design which is based on the science of nutrition.

Most in the Indian scientific community and regulators know very well that the star-based nutrition rating is not going to help address the ever-growing crises of obesity and non-communicable diseases, as much as, the ‘warning’ labels will do. Neither, one can sincerely expect in current times that the industry will agree to anything that reduces their market share or the consumption of their “bad” foods, which are no less than factory-made products.

At the core of this issue, is not just the powerful industry but also a “weak regulator”, which fell short of the much-needed courage to withstand the industry pressure and in the process nearly forgot, its mandate. It was evident throughout the decade long journey. The first phase of it was from 2013-20, which was marked by “delays” and “dilutions” of regulations. The first report of the FSSAI-led expert group even struggled to find a mention of the term “junk food”. Then, two more committees were set up between 2015 and 2018 and the report of the later was not even made public. Two draft regulations also came up, one in 2018 and other in 2019, as the industry was averse to the proposed “red” colour code on foods high in salt, sugar or fats in the first draft.

Finally, the 2020 regulations that were notified did not mention anything on the front-of-pack labelling. By this time, seven years were lost. The second phase was more disheartening. Each of the six meetings of the FSSAI-led stakeholder consultations from January to June 2021, saw a disproportionately high presence of packaged food industry compared to civil society, public health, nutrition experts all taken together. Sadly, often FSSAI officials appeared talking the same language as that of the industry. The very idea of stakeholder consultation appeared flawed. The proposed star-based “Indian Nutrition Rating” is perhaps the worst that could have happened in India’s effort to keep a check these unhealthy food packets, which are highly attractive and addictive.

What India really needs is to “alert” its consumers about the high level of salt, sugar or fat in a particular food. These consumers come from multiple states and regions and many cannot read or understand the jugglery of labelling. Single nutrient and symbol-based “warning” labels can help and perhaps go a long way in decelerating the otherwise unstoppable dietary transition in urban and rural areas. India certainly does not need a labelling system that glorifies the ultra-processed “bad” food with “stars”. With a deceptive inclusion of “positive nutrients” to arrive at stars, such a system will do more harm than good.

(Amit Khurana is director, sustainable food systems programme, Centre for Science and Environment, Delhi)

This column was originally published in the cover story Built to binge in the October 16-31, 2025 print edition of Down To Earth