FSSAI is expected to issue a draft regulation for labels on front of food packets

Subject: Governance

Section: National bodies

Context:

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is expected to issue a draft regulation for labels on front of food packets that will inform consumers if a product is high in salt, sugar and fat.

Need for front-of-package labelling

In the past three decades, the country’s disease patterns have shifted. While mortality due to communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional diseases has declined and India’s population is living longer, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and injuries are increasingly contributing to the overall disease burden.
In 2016, NCDs accounted for 55% of premature death and disability in the country.
Indians also have a disposition for excessive fat around the stomach and abdomen which leads to increased risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.
According to the National Family Health Survey-5 (2019-2021), 47.7% of men and 56.7% of women have a high risk waist-to-hip ratio.
An increased consumption of packaged and junk food has also led to a double burden of undernutrition and overnutrition among children.
Over half of the children and adolescents, whether under-nourished or with normal weight, are at risk of cardiovascular diseases, according to an analysis by the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey in India (2016-2018).
Reducing sugar, salt, and fat is among the best ways to prevent and control non-communicable diseases.
While the FSSAI requires mandatory disclosure of nutrition information on food packets, this is located on the back of a packet and is diﬃcult to interpret.

What decision has FSSAI taken?

At a stakeholder’s meeting on February 15, 2022, three important decisions were taken on what would be the content of the draft regulations on front-of-package labelling. These included
threshold levels to be used to determine whether a food product was high in sugar, salt and fat;
that the implementation will be voluntary for a period of four years before it is made mandatory;
and that the health-star rating system would be used as labels on the basis of a study commissioned by the FSSAI and conducted by IIM-Ahmedabad.

Response to draft regulation

The food industry agreed with the FSSAI’s decision on the issue of mandatory implementation and use of ratings, and sought more time to study the issue of thresholds.
The World Health Organization representative said the threshold levels were lenient, while the consumer organisations opposed all three decisions.
The biggest contention is over the use of a health-star rating system that uses 1/2 a star to five stars to indicate the overall nutrition profile of a product.
Health experts are demanding that the FSSAI instead recommend the “warning label” system which has proven to have altered consumer behaviour.

Why is there opposition to the rating system and what are global practices related to labels on food items:

In a health-star rating system, introduced in 2014 in Australia and New Zealand, a product is assigned a certain number of stars using a calculator designed to assess positive (e.g., fruit, nuts, protein content, etc) and risk nutrients in food (calories, saturated fat, total sugar, sodium).
Scientists have said that such a system misrepresents nutrition science and the presence of fruit in a fruit drink juice does not oﬀset the impact of added sugar.
Experts say that so far there is no evidence of the rating system impacting consumer behaviour.
The stars can also lead to a ‘health halo’ because of their positive connotation making it harder to identify harmful products.
Over 40 global experts have also called the IIM-Ahmedabad study flawed in design and interpretation.
There are many other labelling systems in the world, such as “warning labels” in Chile (which uses black octagonal or stop symbols) and Israel (a red label) for products high in sugar, salt and fat.
The ‘NutriScore’, used in France, presents a coloured scale of A to E, and the Multiple Traﬃc Light (MTL), used in the U.K. and other countries depict red (high), amber (medium) or green (low) lights to indicate the risk factors.
Global studies have shown a warning label is the only format that has led to a positive impact on food and beverage purchases forcing the industry, for example in Chile, to reformulate their products to remove major amounts of sugar and salt.

FSSAI: its role and functions:

It is an autonomous statutory body that maintains the food safety and standards in India.
FSSAI is administered by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.
The Body is functional as per the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.
The FSSAI has its headquarters at New Delhi. The authority also has 6 regional offices located in Delhi, Guwahati, Mumbai, Kolkata, Cochin, and Chennai.
The FSSAI comprises a Chairperson and twenty two members out of which one – third are to be women.
The Chairperson of FSSAI is appointed by the Central Government.
Food Safety and Standards Rule, 2011 provides for:
- The Food Safety Appellate Tribunal and the Registrar of the Appellate Tribunal, for adjudication of food safety cases.
- It covers Licensing and Registration, Packaging and Labelling of Food Businesses, Food Product Standards and Food Additives Regulation.
- It prohibits and restricts on sales or approval for Non-Specified Food and Food Ingredients, such ingredients may cause harm to human health.
- It provides for Food Safety and Standards on Organic Food and regulates Food Advertising.

Important Initiatives by FSSAI

Eat Right India – It is a Pan-India cycle movement called ‘Swasth Bharat Yatra’ aimed to create consumer awareness about eating safe and nutritious food.
Clean Street Food –This involves training the street food vendors and making them aware of the violations as per the FSS Act 2006.
Diet4Life –This is another initiative taken by FSSAI, to spread awareness about metabolic disorders.
Save Food, Share Food, Share Joy –Encouraging people to avoid food wastage and promote food donation. Through this, FSSAI intends to connect food-collecting agencies with the food-producing companies and share the food with the ones in need.
Heart Attack Rewind – It is the first mass media campaign of FSSAI. It is aimed to support FSSAI’s target of eliminating trans fat in India by the year 2022.
FSSAI-CHIFSS – It is collaboration between FSSAI and CII-HUL Initiative on Food Safety Sciences to promote collaborations between Industry, Scientific Community, Academia for food safety.