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An upcoming red dot on millions of packs of snack foods, chocolates, chips, juices, biscuits, cheese, ice-cream and every other packaged foods, has kicked up a storm of sorts among India’s roughly Rs 2.3-lakh crore foods industry. The sweeping concerns range from compromises on taste, to drastic reduction in consumption since red connotes ‘danger’, to higher costs, to the regulator under pressure from food lobbies.Going by national food regulator Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI)’s proposed regulations, the red dot which has meant non-vegetarian food since 2011, could well now also mean foods high in salt, sugar and fat, which could translate to being “unsafe”. On the other hand, the green dot, or vegetarian food, would make the cut for “safe” food.Pawan Agarwal, chief executive of the FSSAI which will regulate compliance with the provision, said comments from stakeholders are in the process of being finalised after following ‘the due process of approval’. “The objective of the new labelling regulations is to enable consumers to know more about the composition of food products, so that they can make informed choices.”Disruptive ImpactIndustry executives say this is the regulator’s biggest and most ambitious bet though the jury is still out on what is safe and what isn’t, adding that since red connotes unsafe or danger, the impact on consumption would be immediate and drastic. They also say the quest for salt and sugar reduction may lead to compromise on taste which risks consumers rejecting the products.“Great-tasting products can have the most impact because consumers may not give up taste for health. We believe that consumer acceptance should be identified as a key success factor in any salt reduction strategy,” a spokesperson for Hindustan Unilever (HUL), the country’s largest packaged consumer goods maker, said. While HUL, which sells Magnum and Walls ice-cream and Kissan jam under its foods and refreshment portfolio, said it is ‘strongly in favour of a front-of-pack labelling scheme’, the company spokesperson added that the scheme should be where the underlying nutrient profile is based on portions. “It should be such that consumers get the right information. The product may still be safe for consumption but high in fat,” the HUL spokesperson said. India is Anglo-Dutch giant Unilever’s largest market by volume.The view that regulations implemented in its present form would be disruptive is unanimous.The country’s largest dairy company GCMMF or Amul’s managing director RS Sodhi said: “Sure, we need to call out junk foods and traffic light labelling should be implemented. But natural dairy products like butter, cheese, ice-cream or flavoured milk cannot and should not be clubbed into this sort of labelling. These are good-for-you essential dairy foods.”73795350
The draft food safety standards (labelling and display) regulations have been under preparation since 2013. A draft for the front of pack regulations pushing for a red dot on foods high in salt, sugar and fat was prepared in 2018 and sent to the health ministry for approval. But following objections from processed foods companies, the draft was sent by FSSAI for review to a committee headed by B Sesikeran, a trustee of the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI), in August 2018. In June 2019, the final draft said the ‘red mark’ stays but the finalised regulations are yet to be released.“Salt and fat are what give packaged foods the taste that consumers crave for; the entire industry will suffer a serious blow (if the traffic light coding is implemented as such),” said Subhashis Basu, chief operating officer at Indore-based Prataap Snacks, maker of the popular Yellow Diamond snacks. He said both sweets and snacks risk dent in sales if that indeed happens. “We live in country where sweets form a major part of every meal; somebody whose primary source of income is making and selling sweets would be impacted negatively. Likewise for salty snacks. With red markings and the general perception that red means danger, consumers simply might not make a purchase,” he added.While companies say colour coding is not suitable to specify if a food product is safe or unsafe to consume because that definition largely depends on personal opinion of consumers, industry bodies point out to the problems it could incur for lakhs of smaller foods makers. “We need to think about the entire industry; this is not just about the multinationals or larger domestic companies; we have some 25 lakh indigenous small and medium enterprises and their interest needs to be taken care of as well,” said industry body All India Food Processors Association (AIFPA), president Subodh Jindal.A spokesperson for Nestle India, the country’s largest pure play packaged foods maker with a brand portfolio including Maggi noodles and KitKat chocolates said it places “high priority” on providing consumers with nutritional information on food labels to help them make informed dietary choices. “The FSSAI labelling regulation is still at a draft stage, and industry members have collectively shared comments on the same,” the Nestle spokesperson said.Others including PepsiCo said they would comply with any new labelling requirements.73795372
The impact on costs is the other cause for concern, companies say. “This (new labelling) will obviously be a costly affair for the entire industry because it involves expenditure whether it’s flexible pouches or mono cartons. Packaging forms roughly 20-30% of the total product cost which is a huge cost to incur,” said Basu of Prataap Snacks.New thresholds in the worksThe regulator is working out new thresholds of fat, sugar, and salt tailored to Indian standards, according to an industry lobbyist who isn’t authorised to speak to the media. “Where is the evidence that sugar consumption is unhealthy; it is in fact the cheapest source of energy, and treating sugar and salt in the category is not practical, neither is it scientific,” he said.FSSAI has maintained that the draft regulations are being worked upon. “Comments received from stakeholders on the draft labelling and display regulations have been considered by concerned scientific panel and shall be finalised after following the due process of approval. A final view on front of pack labelling is yet to be taken by the authority,” a spokesperson for the regulator said in an email revert.Industry bodies like CII are pushing for ‘practical’ changes in the draft regulations to tweak and tone down the traffic light coding, say officials aware of the matter.Foods lobby allegationsAmidst the uncertainty, on December 17 last year, Delhi-based think-tank Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) made allegations that the processed foods lobby is delaying the release of the final regulations. “Our food regulator is dragging its feet and has not notified its own draft labelling regulation. This is clearly because of pressure from the powerful food industry,” CSE director general Sunita Narain alleged. The allegations are part of findings CSE released claiming that it had tested 33 foods brands including Too Yumm chips, Haldiram’s nut crackers, Maggi noodles, McDonald’s burgers and Domino’s pizza, samples of all of which tested salt and fat levels higher than thresholds set by the regulator. “An expert group made recommendations six years ago, but the draft regulation that has emerged is severely diluted — even this much-diluted draft has not been notified,” Narain said.Companies say labelling should be consumer-friendly. “Any type of labelling on food packaging should be such that it is easy for the consumer to understand and importantly, get the right message to take an informed decision,” the HUL spokesperson said.Self-voluntary guidelinesWhile it’s unclear how the thousands of smaller food companies will cope with the upcoming regulations, many global food companies said they are already committed to making their products ‘healthier’ through self-voluntary guidelines amidst heightened concerns from health activists, consumers and governments talking of taxation including sugar tax.HUL, for example, said it is gradually reducing the sodium content of Knorr Soups and Kissan ketchup to meet the sodium benchmarks in line with Unilever’s nutrition standards. The spokesperson for Nestle said the company voluntarily provides monochrome Guideline Daily Amounts (GDA) on food labels for guidance of daily energy intake and key defined nutrients on the front of pack.Meanwhile, FSSAI has said front of pack labelling will soon be delinked from the general labelling.Internationally, the Codex standards, codes of practice, guidelines, and other recommendations for foods are followed by global foods companies.
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