It took eight years, a colour-coded proposal that died without a whimper, and a Supreme Court ultimatum, but the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has finally decided to put front-of-pack labels (FoPL) on packaged food, that too in a single phase. The regulator has given itself four months to finalise the rules, and food companies a year after that to clear existing stock. Even as India moves towards clear and explicit nutritional warnings, this episode underscores the
It took eight years, a colour-coded proposal that died without a whimper, and a Supreme Court ultimatum, but the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has finally decided to put front-of-pack labels (FoPL) on packaged food, that too in a single phase. The regulator has given itself four months to finalise the rules, and food companies a year after that to clear existing stock. Even as India moves towards clear and explicit nutritional warnings, this episode underscores the extraordinary delay, and the consequent loss to national health, in reaching this point. FSSAI had included a colour-coded FoPL system in its 2018 draft Labelling and Display Guidelines. Yet, only after the apex court pulled up FSSAI in August this year for dithering and warned that it would issue FoPL directions itself did the regulator find its resolve.
Given India’s burden of lifestyle diseases — including obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases — has been increasing sharply over the past several decades, regulatory interventions such as FoPL have been imperative for long. Various studies project an obesity epidemic in the coming decades. This makes targeting children for nutritional awareness doubly important: Childhood malnutrition and obesity sharply increase the risks of lifestyle diseases in adult years, and children remain a core consumer group for packaged foods. Against this backdrop, FoPL, with explicit warnings about high sugar, fat, salt, and other harmful content, is a prescription for the country’s future health. Beyond promoting informed choice, it could also prompt the packaged food industry to reformulate products to lower harmful content. The larger prize is what happens behind the label. If a warning is bad for sales, manufacturers have a reason to lobby. FSSAI must resist pressure to dilute the warnings in the final rules, and the courts and public should hold it to that. Ideally, a health regulator should not need a court to remind it of its job.
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