India’s food regulator may introduce Front of Pack Labelling on packaged items that will inform consumers about the nutritional value of the food, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) may make it necessary for packaged food items to have a label in front of the pack that will be based on recognisable symbols on the basis of how much energy, saturated fat, total sugar, sodium, and essential nutrients the packet contains per 100 gm or 100 ml.
“There are several reforms that are in the pipeline for the food regulatory ecosystem, and this is one of those ideas,” a senior official said, requesting anonymity.
The food regulator began discussions last year on these lines and also proposed an Indian Nutrition Rating for packaged food items sold in the market based on their overall nutritional status.
“FSSAI has Draft notified FSS (Labelling and Display) Amendment Regulations 2022 on 13th September 2022 wherein Indian Nutrition Rating has been proposed as a format for Front of Pack Labelling for making informed food choices. The same was open for comments till 18th November, 2022. The comments received are under consideration,” the regulator said in a response to a query on the matter.
Nutritional labelling in front of the pack has already been implemented in various formats in some Western countries and has been found to be effective in helping consumers making an informed choice, the official said.
The National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), an Indian Council of Medical Research institute based in Hyderabad, recently released inferences from a study that the institute conducted on acceptability and potential use of different formats of nutrition labels in promoting informed food choices.
“The study suggests that warning labels can deter choice and consumption of even moderately unhealthy foods, while summary ratings like health star or NutriScore can help identify healthier variant among the available foods,” NIN said in a statement on the results of its study.
“Summary labels provide a brief and concise overview of the product’s key features and benefits, often including information about positive as well as negative nutrients,” it said. “Warning labels, on the other hand, provide information about potential hazards associated with the product as they take into consideration the nutrients of concern like sugars, fats and salt.”
This was a cross-sectional study conducted among 3231 participants (2,616 adults and 615 adolescents ) who share responsibility of shopping for food in their homes from five regions of India – north (Delhi), east (Kolkata), west (Pune), south (Hyderabad) and northeast (Jorhat, Assam).
“In the present study, it was observed that even though the percentage of participants reading nutrition information is low, the participants checking the veg/non veg symbols and quality symbols was higher,” said the researchers of the study. “Therefore, FOPNL (front of the pack nutrition label) on pre-packaged processed foods are likely to have good uptake among India population as they are symbol-based.”
Nutritional labels are seen as important tools of public health communication about the healthiness of food items. Different formats of these labels are in use in different countries globally, either voluntarily or by mandatory implementation.
“The decision to which type of FOPNL should be used in a country should be based on the local research, along with regional and global evidence, and in consideration of each country’s specific objectives for developing a FOPNL policy,” NIN said.
Nutri-score and Health Star Rating are the formats currently in vogue in Europe and Australia, respectively, and the rating (colour coding from green for healthy to orange for moderately healthy and red for unhealthy) is based on both positive and negative nutrients.
“The choice of the FOPNL format for Indian scenario should not base only on wider acceptability and appeal but on its ability to influence food choice,” said Dr Hemalatha R, director, NIN. “The key purpose of introducing the FOPNL also drives the choice of the format. If the purpose of FOPNL is to promote healthy food choices, then summary labels may be useful.”
“Alternatively, in the context of growing overweight, obesity and non-communicable diseases, if the FOPNL has to serve as a preventive tool and deter the consumers from consumption of nutrients of concern, then warning indicator labels could be helpful,” she said.
