New rules for food product advertisements

The new regulations are aimed at establishing fairness in claims and advertisements of food products and will make food businesses accountable for their claims in advertisements.

NEW DELHI: India's apex food regulator has finalised norms related to claims and advertisements of food products.

These regulations are aimed at establishing fairness in claims and advertisements of food products and will make food businesses accountable for their claims in advertisements in order to protect consumer interests, read a statement issued by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

The new regulations will come into effect from July 1 next year.

As per these regulations, firms running food businesses cannot use words or phrases such as natural, fresh, original, traditional, authentic, genuine, real on the food labels, barring some exceptions. Such restrictions are primarily aimed at restricting an open-ended use of these words by food businesses on frivolous grounds

These regulations contain several sections detailing definitions; general principles for claims and advertisements; criteria for nutrition claims (including nutrient content or nutrient comparative claims), non-addition claims (including non-addition of sugars and sodium salts), health claims (reduction of disease risk), claims related to dietary guidelines or healthy diets, and conditional claims.

Advertisements of a food product that undermines the importance of healthy lifestyles or portrays the food product as a complete replacement of normal meal are not permitted. Also, food businesses will also be prohibited to advertise or make claim undermining the products of other manufacturer so as to promote their own food products or influence consumer behaviour.

Many claims, listed in various schedules of these regulations with related criteria, are permitted to be made by food business operators without the need for seeking prior approval from the food regulator.

However, other types of claims not standardised under these regulations may require approval from the Food Authority and should be supported with sound scientific basis, the regulator said.

Any person, including a third party, who puts out an advertisement or is a party to the publication of any misleading advertisement, not complying with these regulations, would be penalised with a fine extending up to Rs 10 lakh, as per Section 53 of the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006.

FSSAI launches new campaign to eliminate trans fats by 2022

FSSAI’s plan to lower the levels of trans fat in India’s food supply from the present <5 per cent to <2 per cent

Globally, trans fat intake leads to more than 500,000 deaths of people from cardiovascular disease every year.

NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 30

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) on Friday launched a new mass media campaign calling for the elimination of industrially produced trans fat in the food supply.

Called “Heart Attack Rewind”, the 30 second public service announcement (PSA) - the first mass media campaign of its kind – will support FSSAI’s global target of eliminating trans fat in India by the year 2022, a year ahead of the global target by the World Health Organization (WHO) for complete elimination of trans fat, a statement said here.

Globally, trans fat intake leads to more than 500,000 deaths of people from cardiovascular disease every year. Trans fat are made by adding hydrogen to liquid vegetable oils to make them more solid, and to increase the shelf life of foods. Trans fat are largely present in Vanaspati, margarine and bakery shortenings, and can be found in baked and fried foods.

“FSSAI is committed to reducing the industrially produced trans fatty acids to less than 2% by the year 2022 in a phased manner. This is in line with our objective to get Freedom from ‘Trans Fat: India@75.’ I am hopeful that this media campaign will educate consumers about the harmful effects and its link to cardiovascular diseases,” Pawan Agarwal, FSSAI CEO, said

“Heart Attack Rewind” warns citizens about the health hazards of consuming trans fat and offers strategies to avoid them through healthier alternatives.

In May 2018, WHO launched a comprehensive plan to eliminate industrially-produced trans fat from the global food supply by 2023. REPLACE provides a roadmap about how countries can remove and replace all trans fat from their food supplies with the intention to eradicate it from the globe.

FSSAI’s plan to lower the levels of trans fat in India’s food supply from the present <5 per cent to <2 per cent

“Heart Attack Rewind” will be broadcast in 17 languages for a period of four weeks on major digital platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Hotstar, and Voot. Additionally, the campaign will also be placed on radio channels and outdoor hoardings in Delhi/NCR. A corresponding social media campaign will also highlight the harmful effects of trans fat on people’s health.

FSSAI launches awareness drive on trans fats

Impact of trans fats on human health in India is increasing and awareness about them is vital if they are to be eliminated altogether, says FSSAI head

Frying potatoes in a fast food restaurant.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) on November 30 launched a new mass media campaign in order to create awareness about trans fats and eliminate them in India by 2022.

“Heart Attack Rewind”, a 30-second public service announcement, will be broadcast in 17 languages for a period of four weeks on YouTube, Facebook, Hotstar, and Voot. It will also be placed on outdoor hoardings and run on radio stations in Delhi and the National Capital Region. The campaign will warn citizens about the health hazards of consuming trans fats and offer strategies to avoid them through healthier alternatives.

Artificial trans fats are created in an industrial process that adds hydrogen to liquid vegetable oils to make them more solid. Since they are easy to use, inexpensive to produce and last a long time, and give foods a desirable taste and texture, they are still widely used despite their harmful effects being well-known.

“Studies have recently shown that 60,000 deaths occur every year due to cardiovascular diseases, which in turn arecaused due to high consumption of trans fats,” Pawan Aggarwal, Chief Executive Officer of FSSAI told reporters during during an event to officially launch the campaign.

“Since the impact of trans fats on human health is increasing exponentially, it is very important to create awareness about them. This campaign will concentrate on the demand side (consumers), who in turn, will push the supply side (food manufacturers) to come up with various strategies in order to reduce and later replace trans fats,” he added.

“Heart Attack Rewind” is a follow-up to an earlier campaign called “Eat Right”, which was launched on July 11, 2018. As part of the campaign, edible oil industries took a pledge to reduce trans fat content by 2 per cent by 2022. Later, food companies also took a pledge to reformulate packaged foods with reduced levels of salt, sugar and saturated fat.

Swasth Bharat Yatra, an initiative started under the “Eat Right” campaign which started on October 16 and will end on January 27, 2019, will also seek to create awareness among citizens about trans fats.

Roopa Shivashankar, a senior consultant on cardiovascular health, said that in one research study, it was found that 75 per cent of housewives did not know what trans fats was and that this campaign would be educating them as well as others about their ill-effects. “These women should be aware that use of the same cooking oil continuously in the household also leads to formation of trans fats,” she added.

In May this year, the World Health Organization released a step-by-step guide for the elimination of industrially-produced trans-fatty acids from the global food supply. Since then, a lot of countries have made efforts to reduce the levels of trans fats and in some cases, have completely banned them.

“India is also moving towards same by first reducing the levels from 5 per cent to 2 per cent and then altogether by 2022, said Aggarwal.

A guidance book on trans fats was also released during the event.

FDA shuts down unit for selling adulterated oil

Pune: Officials of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) shut down an edible oil branding and repackaging unit at Pisoli late on Thursday night for selling adulterated oil.

The operators blended cheaper versions of rice bran and soybean oils in relatively expensive mustard oil to make quick money. The officials sealed the stock of 50 tonne of edible oil worth Rs 42.92 lakh.

“The unit owner used to purchase cheaper edible oils in bulk and would do the branding, labelling and packaging at his unit located at Dangde Farm in Pisoli (Haveli taluka). When we raided the unit, we found large tanks of cheaper edible oils and mustard oils,” Suresh Deshmukh, joint commissioner (food), FDA, Pune told TOI.

The owner was also found operating the unit without oil testing laboratory, which is mandatory. Besides, the person in-charge of the operation at the unit was not technically qualified. “The edible oil packaging unit needs to test the oil periodically and maintain a record of the same. But there was no laboratory on the premises. We have also drawn samples of the oil and sent them for tests to the government laboratory.” Deshmukh said.

The officials found that the packaging unit was selling adulterated oil when a sample drawn randomly during Diwali showed the adulteration. The officials then raided the unit late on Thursday night. FDA food safety officials Ulhas Ingawale, Santosh Sawant, Anil Gavate carried out the raid under the guidance of state FDA minister Girish Bapat.

Incidentally, the FDA’s vigilance department had raided several oil mills in the past, taken samples and found packets of sunflower, soybean, groundnut oil refilled with cotton seed oil. “There are instances where miscreants removed oil from tins of reputed brands and mixed it with ordinary palm oil or any other cheap variety of oil,” said another official.

According to experts, such impurities are difficult to identify as the blending of cheaper oil like palm oil does not change the physical property or taste of the product. But it changes the chemical property, which affects the consumers’ health.