Soon, red hexagonal label to warn of high fat, sugar, salt in snacks

The plan to introduce the Front-of-Pack Nutrition Labelling will be executed in two phases, as per the affidavit. In the first phase, only products with a high content of at least two of the ingredients will carry the warning label. In the second phase, the warning will extend to products high in even one ingredient.

The FSSAI affidavit proposes the warning label for packaged foods high in two or more ingredients of concern based on thresholds specified under the Dietary Guidelines for Indians, 2024, issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Nutrition.

“The label shall indicate the applicable declarations such as ‘high fat’, ‘high sugar’, ‘high salt’ and/or ‘highly sweetened beverage’, as the case may be, to enable consumers to identify products high in the specified nutrients,” the affidavit states.

Single-ingredient food products and “food products which are inherently rich in fat, sugar or salt, such as ghee, edible oil, salt, sugar, jaggery and honey, subject to the applicability of other requirements under the food safety and labelling regulations”, will be exempted from the labelling requirement, the affidavit stated. The FSSAI said the two-phase plan is “to facilitate consumer acceptability and provide industry adequate time for reformulation”.

Advocate Rajiv Shankar Dvivedi, appearing for the petitioner, said, “We have received the FSSAI compliance affidavit. We have prepared a revised draft, which has been circulated on the petitioner’s website. We have invited comments from the public on the said rejoinder (affidavit). After getting all the comments, we will file our rejoinder.”

Nutrition experts have welcomed the move to introduce warning labels but have some concerns about the implementation. Dr Arun Gupta, Convener of Nutrition Advocacy in Public Interest (NAPi)- India, said: “In principle, FSSAI has agreed to the warning labels, but they have put in a whole lot of conditions that make it ineffective. Take for example the two or more nutrient threshold in the phase I of implementation. Many unhealthy products would not need to add the warning label because they are high in just one nutrient.” He said the FSSAI has also not given any timeline for phase II when all products high in fats, sugars or salts will have to carry the warning.

Another challenge is the use of the term “added”. “The food products will have to carry the warning only when there are added sugars or added fats. One, this is difficult to estimate. Two, it is not just the added fat or added sugar that harms the health; high levels of natural sugars can also be bad.” He also said the font size proposed is too small and the message should be carried in Hindi as well.