According to multiple officials and minutes of a meeting of stakeholders called by the authority, India’s food safety authority has decided to put food safety labels on the front side of packaged food based on the fat, sugar, and salt cause to human health, but consensus on what the label should say has eluded the food industry and consumer groups.
FSSAI Labels
Most customers would not know how much sugar, salt, or fat is beneficial or harmful for their health if simply quantity is indicated, according to consumer and advocacy groups, thus labels should explicitly specify whether the item is healthy for human consumption or not.
The food industry wants the label to be a guideline that informs consumers about the amount of salt, sugar, sodium, and fats in their food without providing health warnings, claiming that the goal should be to empower consumers to make informed decisions rather than to discourage them from eating packaged food.
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‘We will have a people perception survey done by the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, to see what kind of label people prefer,’ said Arun Singhal, chief executive of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). He said that once the study is completed, draught and then final guidelines on the front of the package label (FOPL) will be provided.
The FSSAI took nearly eight years to get to this point because the food sector was hesitant to have front-of-package food safety labels, which have been established in other countries such as Brazil and Chile and plainly state whether a product is healthy for consumers or not. The processed food business in India is estimated to be worth the US $ 44 billion and rising at a rate of roughly 24% per year.
According to minutes of a meeting held by the FSSAI in June with all stakeholders, the industry stated that food safety labelling on salt, sugar, and fat should be based on serve size rather than quantity in the packet because this is what the consumer eats.
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Consumer advocacy groups suggested that the label educate consumers about the amount of salt, sugar, and fat in the item, as well as how much higher it is than the allowable limit. A reference size of 100 gm/ml should also be used
The FSSAI agreed with the consumer group, stating that there is currently no information on serve sizes available. ‘The acceptability and understanding of 100 gm/ml as a unit is higher, and it allows for a rational comparison of products,’ according to the minutes, which cited the FSSAI.
According to the minutes, the food industry’s idea to include information about positive nutrients on labels was rejected, as FSSAI experts backed consumer groups who claimed that the ‘primary and foremost’ goal of FOPL was to alert consumers about harmful nutrients in food products.
Getting the food sector to agree to a food safety label on the front of the packaging that is easily accessible was no less than an “accomplishment,” according to a top FSSAI scientist who declined to be cited. ‘There was a lot of hesitancy on the side of the industry, but we got them through,’ he said.
Traffic light signals, nutrition scores, health star ratings, and warning symbols are among the five types of labels being studied, according to Singhal. He went on to say that each label type has advantages and disadvantages.
After discovering that most consumers are confused by labels, the FSSAI has invited the Indian Institute of Ahmedabad (IIM) to undertake a customer survey to determine which sort of label is the most intelligible.
After discovering that most consumer surveys undertaken in western countries about the impact of labels on consumers had ‘geographical bias,’ the FSSAI has invited the Indian Institute of Ahmedabad (IIM) to conduct a customer survey to determine which type of label would be most understandable for people.
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Changes in consumer diet habits and acceptance of processed and pre-packaged foods and beverages have been attributed to factors such as rising per capita income, globalisation, decreasing pricing, altering consumer tastes and beliefs, and increased urbanisation, according to the study.
Apart from sugar-sweetened beverages, 53 percent of youngsters consume salted packaged foods such as chips and noodles, and 56 percent sweetened packaged foods such as chocolates and ice creams. ‘Sugar is used to make these items addicting,’ Gupta explained.
To see how many food products adhere to food safety standards, the FSSAI had 1,306 samples of pre-packaged foods and beverages evaluated for fats (total fats, saturated fats, and trans fats), sugar (sugar produced by food and added sugar), and sodium (natural salt and added salt) using a baseline nutrient value of 100 g/ml, which is also the base for food safety labels.
The study discovered that 62.8 percent of the samples failed all three tests, indicating that they included higher quantities of sugar, salt, and fat than the recommended levels. If one ingredient is considered to be a failure, 90 percent of the samples failed to reach the FSSAI’s threshold limit.
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According to the Global Food Research Programme of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s 2018 report, the majority of processed foods sold fall into the category of hyper-processed foods.
‘Unprocessed or minimally processed foods, freshly prepared meals, and traditional cooking have rapidly displaced unprocessed or minimally processed foods, freshly prepared meals, and traditional cooking in the diet in most countries, causing significant nutritional, social, economic, and environmental disruption and damage worldwide,’ according to the study, which added that UPFs account for roughly half or more of total calories consumed in the United States.
Rita Teotia, the chairman of the FSSAI and a former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, remarked during the gathering that the road to FOPL has been long, but that most of the issues have been resolved to the satisfaction of all stakeholders. ‘Informed consumer choices must be at the centre of all decisions made on this issue, and the label must be simple to comprehend,’ she added as the meeting came to a close.
