Food Safety and Standards Authority of India

Packaged food companies have requested the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to keep some products like juices, cookies, confectionery among others out of the front-of-pack labelling regulations that insist on display of detailed nutritional information prominently citing “practical issues”. “We have requested the authority to leave out certain products as they will fall under the unhealthy category due to practical issues. They should be kept out of the list at least in the first phase of implementation,” said a senior official of a packaged food company. For instance, any food item with more than 10% sugar will have to be labelled as a high sugar product. In most juices 90% of calories are from naturally occurring sugars and hence they will have to be labelled as high sugar or unhealthy, he said explaining the practical issues the industry is facing.