The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is working on a set of rules for labeling of food products, particularly those considered high in fat, sugar and salt. The country’s apex food regulator has taken up the issue after an old report on HFSS products was made public recently.
FSSAI official, “The rationale behind the move is that there is no scientific definition of foods high in fat, salt and sugar and it will be difficult to categorise such products.”
“Therefore, we are working on a set of rules which will be defined in accordance to the daily recommended intake of a nutrient or ingredient for a person in a day,” he added.
“These norms would make it mandatory for food business operators (FBOs) to mention the amounts of fat, salt and sugar in accordance to the recommended dietary allowances (RDAs),” the official stated.
He added, “It would be made mandatory for the FBOs to mention what part of the RDA is consumable on the package of that food product or per serving of the product.”
The official said that FBOs were already putting information about the nutritional values of the product in terms of salt, sugar and fat per 100g serving.
“This effort is to help the consumers make informed choices,” he added, stating that the norms would be out shortly.