New Delhi: Packaged food products containing excessive amounts of salt, sugar or saturated fat could soon carry a prominent red warning symbol on the front of the packet under a proposal submitted by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to the Supreme Court.
The proposed warning label would be a red hexagon, placed prominently on the front of food packages to alert consumers when specified nutritional limits are exceeded.
The proposal comes in response to a petition filed by 3S and Our Health Society, a public charitable trust, seeking mandatory warning labels on packaged and processed food products.
The matter was heard by the Supreme Court on August 13, when a bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice KV Chandran had questioned the delay in framing the regulations and asked whether the government did not want its citizens to remain healthy. FSSAI subsequently filed an affidavit outlining its proposed approach.
Warning system proposed in two phases
FSSAI has proposed implementing the warning-label system in two phases to give the food industry time to reformulate products.
Phase 1: Red warning labels would initially be required on products where two or more of the specified nutrients — fat, sugar or salt — exceed the prescribed limits. The proposal would also cover highly sweetened soft drinks.
Phase 2: The requirement would subsequently be extended to products where even one of these nutrients exceeds the prescribed limit.
The proposed system is intended to help consumers identify products high in potentially harmful levels of salt, sugar and saturated fat at a glance.
