Food industry in India calls for review of warning label thresholds

NEW DELHI: Food producers in India have filed a court submission seeking to force New Delhi to review planned health labels on packaging, saying many staples risk being covered in warnings that will tarnish the image of Indian food globally.

The filing made on Wednesday in the Supreme Court is the first legal objection from the more than $100 billion packaged-food industry to the government’s labelling plan, announced on August 28. The filing, seen and first reported by Reuters, is not public.

India is in the midst of an unprecedented food safety crackdown, including nationwide raids against eateries, amid concern over poor hygiene and standards. The government’s plan for front-of-pack red warning labels came after heated public debate on the lack of such measures. The Supreme Court, which is hearing pleas from health activists, will review the plan on Thursday.

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The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India last month proposed a red-coloured hexagonal label for products that exceed limits in at least two of three categories - added sugar, salt or saturated fat.

Reuters has reported that industry executives are concerned the proposal for a prominent label if added sugar is in excess of 3% of solid products by weight, and fat in excess of 4.2%, is stricter than many foreign markets.

The thresholds require “further scientific examination … so that the framework is placed on the most robust and internationally consistent footing available,” the All India Food Processors’ Association said in its court filing on Wednesday.

They should take “account of the Indian dietary context and consumer-consumption patterns,” AIFPA said, referring to its previous submissions to the regulator that nearly 80% of packaged-food products may fall into the high fat, sugar or salt category under India’s approach.

AIFPA’s members include Nestle, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Hindustan Unilever and dozens of other foreign and Indian companies. None of the companies responded to Reuters requests for comment.

Warning labels debate

The labelling proposal follows widespread public anger and debate following a Reuters report that India’s government had yielded to lobbying in March from Coca-Cola and groups backing Nestle and PepsiCo, which opposed having warnings on the front of food and drinks packaging.

AIFPA in its submission also said it has previously told the Indian regulator about the relatively limited share of packaged foods in overall food consumption in India, and how the sector creates massive employment.

Dr. Arun Gupta, the convenor of Nutrition Advocacy in Public Interest, criticised AIFPA’s submissions in court, saying it was a “desperate attempt to delay warning labels”.

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Last week, seven executives from Indian and foreign firms told Reuters a key issue with the Indian proposal was a 100-gram (3.5 ounces) benchmark to judge whether a product needs to be flagged, instead of going by a single serve. “Nobody consumes 100 grams of a pickle or ketchup,” one executive had said.

In the court filing, AIFPA cited the example of a U.S. proposal to use a calculation based on a per-serve basis, calling for a similar approach in India.