Hotel menus to carry info on salt, fat content

With neutraceutical firms and other energy food firms making tall claims and misleading public, the Food Standards and Safety Authority of India (FSSAI) will notify additional norms in a month to keep tabs on advertisements by such firms.
After considering public opinion, these norms would be made part of the Food Safety and Standards (packaging and labelling) regulations, 2011.
“They need to support their claims with scientific evidence. The Authority will make it mandatory for firms to indicate details on the packages. If they do not live up to the claims, they have to change the ads,” Mr B Sesikeran, Chairman of Scientific Panel on food Labelling and Director of the National Institute of Nutrition, said.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a workshop on ‘Importance of agricultural technology in India' here on Wednesday, he said that hotels would be asked to carry details of important parameters such as salt, iron and saturated fat contents in the food items they serve. “It, however, is voluntary initially. It may be made mandatory after a few years,” he said.
Earlier addressing the workshop organised by IndoAsiancommodities.com, he said that more European companies were taking to genetically modified crops. “There is no adverse evidence of ill-effects of GM foods in the countries where they are consumed,” he said.