FSSAI: Showing nutritional information on food labels now mandatory

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has approved a proposal to display nutritional information of total sugar, salt and saturated fat on labels of packaged food items. 

The move is aimed at empowering consumers to be better informed about the nutritional value of food products. 

The information must be written in bold letters and a comparatively increased font size, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in a release.

The decision to approve the amendment in the Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2020 regarding Nutritional information labelling was taken in the 44th meeting of the Food Authority, held under the chairmanship of Apurva Chandra, Chairperson, FSSAI.

The draft notification for the proposed amendment would now be put in the public domain and suggestions and objections will be sought.

Along with empowering consumers to make healthier choices, the amendment would also contribute towards efforts to combat the rise of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and promote public health and well-being.

Further, FSSAI has been issuing advisories from time to time to prevent false and misleading claims.

These include advisories sent to e-commerce website for removal of the term 'Health Drink' as it is not defined or standardized anywhere under the relevant Act, apart from directive mandating all Food Business Operators (FBOs) to remove any claim of '100% fruit juices' from the labels and advertisements of reconstituted fruit juices, the use of the term wheat flour/ refined wheat flour, the advertisement and marketing of ORS along with prefix or suffix, nutrient function claim for multi-source edible vegetable oils etc.

These advisories and directives are issued to prevent misleading claims by FBOs.

Senior officials from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Ministry of Law and Justice, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises; States and Union Territories attended the meeting.

Representatives from industry associations, consumer organizations, research institutes and farmers' organisations were also present at the meeting.