'Companies' claims about food products in ads to be regulated'

In a bid to restrict deceptive advertisements, particularly with regards to food articles such as weight-loss or weight-gain drinks, the Food Standards and Safety Authority of India (FSSAI) is going to make it mandatory for the manufacturers to display scientific evidence on the package.
According to the Director of the National Institute of Nutrition and Chairman of Scientific panel on Food Labelling, B Sesikeran, said the panel recommendations will be notified in a month time and after that it will seek public opinion before amending the existing Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations, 2011.
"New food labelling regulation will have a lot of things such as if a health drink claims that children will grow taller with the drink then they will have produce evidence to prove their claim", Sesikeran told reporters on the sidelines of 'Technology as Driver of Growth: Ensuring Farm Productivity' a panel discussion organised by IndoAsiancommodities.Com.
"We are going to regulate advertisements also. They cannot make claim unless the company does study and generate adequately valid scientific data. Otherwise, claims have to be removed from the advertisement", he added.
He said there is also a proposal to display nutritional values on the hotel menu cards.
Though it is not mandatory for the hotels initially it may become a rule after three years, Sesikeran explained.
"Particularly salt, sugar, iron and fat values should be displayed against each food item the hotel offers. Initially, we will ask them to do it voluntarily", he said.