Food regulator may tighten labelling norms for packaged foods

NEW DELHI: With growing consumption of packaged foods and supplements, the central food regulator is now planning to bring claims regulation to keep a stringent check on what companies declare, disclose or claim on labels of their products.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is working with international agencies like International Alliance of Dietary/Food Supplement Associations to bring in global best practices.

While the regulations will cover all nutrient information claimed by companies, initially it will focus on content such as amount of sugar, salt, fat, vitamins and minerals. It will also look into health supplement categories including claims of food containing probiotics and foods for special dietary use, an official said.

So for instance, if a company claims that a particular product has health benefits or does not contain added salt/sugar, or has therapeutic benefits, then in such cases the proposed regulations will apply and FSSAI may check compliance.

"We are trying to tighten the labelling norms for packaged foods. A number of measures in this direction have been taken. The FSSAI has also come up with some draft regulations, which are being discussed. FSSAI is now also working to bring claim regulations so that companies are accountable for the claims," the official said.

According to the official, the regulator will create a positive list with category of products and then do sampling and testing to see if products on the list comply with the claims made by them.

According to industry estimates, India is among the top five consumers of packaged food in the world and the second largest in Asia, with a sales volume of 34 million tonne. By 2020, it is expected to become the third largest market for packaged food, after China and the United States. The sales volume of packaged food is likely to increase to 47 million tonne, whereas the size of the market is pegged at $65 billion by 2020, from around $40 billion currently.

Apart from packaged foods, the food supplement segment which includes nutraceuticals, foods for special dietary use, foods for special medical purpose, speciality foods containing plants or botanicals, foods containing probiotics, foods containing prebiotics and novel foods are also rapidly growing and is poised to become a $10 billion industry by 2025. As this sector grows, FSSAI is gearing itself to strengthen the regulatory ecosystem through cross-border collaboration and learning from international best practices.

The government feels apart from declaring, the companies should also have accountability about what they claim about their products. The proposed claims regulation is primarily targeted at this. For instance, a mere combination of vitamins and minerals formulated into tablets, capsules or syrup is not food unless vitamins and minerals are added to an article of food based on a food format.