The Centre on Thursday told the Supreme Court that it was open to making red warning labels mandatory on packaged food products high in even one nutrient of concern—sugar, salt or saturated fat—dropping the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India’s (FSSAI) earlier proposal to trigger the warnings only when a product exceeded limits for two or more such nutrients.
The shift came after a bench of justices JB Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran questioned the rationale behind the two-phase approach proposed by the food regulator, which had envisaged warnings initially only for products high in two or more nutrients and extending them to products high in a single nutrient at a later stage. FSSAI had proposed the labels after the Supreme Court in August questioned its reluctance to adopt interpretive front-of-pack warnings and warned that it would issue directions if the government failed to act. The industry has been pressing for a per-serving benchmark, while FSSAI’s proposal is based on thresholds under the ICMR-NIN guidelines. The court’s intervention follows its criticism last month of the Centre and FSSAI for failing to move decisively on front-of-pack labelling. The PIL, filed by 3S and Our Health Society, seeks mandatory front-of-pack warnings on packaged foods high in sugar, salt and saturated fats. This compliance affidavit envisaged a red-coloured hexagonal warning on the front of food packages where the product is high in any two or more of the specified nutrients of concern — added fat, added sugar and salt.
Senior advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for a food processors’ association, said the industry had already made a representation to FSSAI on the threshold methodology, particularly whether the calculation should be based on 100 grams of a product or its serving size. On August 13, the bench had questioned whether the regulator was succumbing to pressure from food manufacturers and told the government that if it failed to act, the court would pass further directions. FSSAI is a statutory authority under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, tasked with laying down science-based food standards and ensuring the availability of safe and wholesome food for human consumption. The thresholds would be those prescribed under the Dietary Guidelines for Indians, 2024, issued by the ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition (NIN).
The proposed system involves prominent red-coloured, hexagonal warnings on the front of packaged food, carrying declarations such as “HIGH FAT”, “HIGH SUGAR” and “HIGH SALT”. “Packaged product like Kurkure is being compared to eggs or similar food,” said Kamat.
