Hard-handed Indian official urges food firms to be ethical amid labelling, ingredients row

NEW DELHI: One of India’s strictest food safety commissioners has urged companies to be more ethical and not maintain different nutrition standards in India and abroad, reacting to a Reuters story that revealed varying approaches on recipes and labelling.

The comments from Tukaram Mundhe, the Food Commissioner of India’s Maharashtra state, come amid anger and debate among consumers and health experts after Reuters reported this week that companies make different versions of the same products to comply with local regulations, tastes and spending capacity.

For example, a can of Fanta sold in London has 63 calories, but the same-sized product in India contains three times as much sugar and 185 calories.

“Where are ethics in this? Companies should not only abide with legal compliances but also practice ethical behaviour. Why the different standard,” Mundhe told Reuters on Friday when asked about the findings, marking the first comments from a government official on the story.

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“They have responsibility towards society,” he added. Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Nestle — key players in the over $100 billion Indian food and drinks market — did not respond to requests for comment on his remarks.

Mundhe has become India’s most high-profile state food safety chief for his strict enforcement drives in Maharashtra, the country’s richest state and home to Mumbai. His teams have raided small and big establishments in recent weeks, including Domino’s, McDonald’s and many more, shutting some for poor hygiene.

Pack warnings

Reuters also reported this week that companies such as Coca-Cola and groups representing Nestle, PepsiCo and others lobbied successfully against India’s plan to have front-of-pack warning labels, even though those companies voluntarily have put them on their products in many European markets for years.

India’s federal food regulator buckled after a tense March meeting where a Coca-Cola executive argued warning labels were pointless because they won’t prevent consumers from otherwise having sugary foods, and because Indian doctors had done a good job telling patients what to avoid, Reuters reported.

Mundhe in a LinkedIn post, where he shared the Reuters story, rebutted that remark, saying: “Warning labels don’t insult consumer intelligence, they respect it.”

“The argument that doctors already advise patients misses the point: prevention should not depend on already being sick,” he wrote.

India’s Supreme Court has criticized New Delhi for delays on front-of-pack labelling and called for their urgent implementation.

Amid the public debate, Nestle global CEO said this week the company wants India to consult with manufacturers when drafting rules for front-of-pack health labelling on food and drinks to ensure it is done “scientifically”.