Now the food business operators (FBOs) have to be cautious on claims while selling food products, supplements or nutraceuticals which fall under the the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has issued a notice calling for suggestions, views, comments from stakeholders on the draft Food Safety and Standards (Advertisements and Claims) Regulations, 2017.
These regulations restrict FBOs making false claims and advertisements or ambiguous statements while selling their products. This could attract penalty under Section 53, the amount of which may extend to Rs 10 lakh. This is a part of the country’s apex food regulator’s plan to issue comprehensive regulations for advertisement, claims, labels, and packaging, which earlier were part of the same documented regulations.
“Earlier, there was no draft on such regulation in public domain. This is a first-of-its-kind regulation which purely covers advertisements and claims for all the food categories, including categories coming under Section 22 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006,” said Vaibhav Kulkarni, chairman, technical and regulatory committee, and board member, Health and Dietary Supplement Association (HADSA).
“It is a logical move by the authority and would provide FBOs clarity on what claims can be stated on the labels viz-a-viz the products. It will also open window of opportunity for the researchers so that they can plan their product formulation depending upon the claims that can be put on the label,” he added.
“However, on the flip side, FBOs may get confused between this horizontal regulation and vertical regulation on nutraceutical regulations which also talk about category specific claims,” said Kulkarni.
The draft regulations said, “Claims must be truthful, unambiguous, meaningful, not misleading and help consumers to comprehend the information provided. It shall not encourage or condone excess consumption of a particular food.”
“It shall not state, suggest or imply that a balanced and varied diet cannot provide appropriate quantities of nutrients as required by the body,” they added.
“Further, where the claim benefit is related to or dependent on the method of preparation of the food, the same shall be provided on the label and it shall specify the number of servings of the food per day for the claimed benefit,” the regulations said.
They added, “For this regulation, the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) values as provided in the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Dietary Guidelines for Indians shall be applicable. If Indian RDA is not available for any nutrient, the values provided in the Codex/World Health Organisation (WHO) Guidelines shall be applicable,” they added.
Additional conditions and/or disclaimer statements may be used with non-addition claims to assist consumer understanding of the claims within countries. Disclaimer statements should appear in close proximity to, on the same side and in the same prominence as the claim.
The draft has laid down the regulations for health claims, claims related to dietary guidelines or healthy diets, conditional claims (a claim may be made where a food is, by its nature, high or low or free of a specific nutrient, provided the name of the nutrient or substance is preceded by the words natural or naturally in the claim statement) and prohibited claims, which state that no claims shall be made which refer to the suitability of the food for use in the prevention, alleviation, treatment or cure of a disease or disorder of a particular physiological condition.
Further the regulations talk about the approval of claims, wherein the FBO or marketer may seek prior approval from the food authority for nutrition and health claims/claims other than those that are defined and for which criteria have been laid down under these regulations or any other regulations made under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.