As per the recent media reports, soon fruit juices, cereals, cereal-based foods and bakery products will have fortification standards. Safe foods will have a logo of a declaration set by national food regulator, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
In her recent media outing, Vinita Bali, Chairperson, CII National Committee on Nutrition told, “The committee, which includes large packaged food companies like Kraft Heinz, Britannia, ITC, Kellogg, Cargill and GSK Consumer, is working with FSSAI to set the standards.”
“We are looking to strengthen regulatory monitoring to ensure quality and safety of fortified foods and promote a national logo for easy recognition of safe foods.” Bali added that standards are being set for consumer staples including salt, oil and milk. “We are focusing on fortifying staples like wheat flour, milk, rice and oil. This will be followed by packaged food,” said FSSAI chief executive Pawan Kumar Agarwal. FSSAI also plans to work with packaged foods companies on advertising campaigns to increase consumer awareness about fortification, he added “Big players have come on board despite fortification not being mandatory in India. This is unique as most countries had to make it compulsory,” he said. Companies come forward when there is a competitive advantage in doing something. In such a case, there will be a competitive disadvantage in not working towards fortification, he added.
FSSAI has been driving large-scale fortification of consumer staple foods such as wheat flour, rice, milk, oil and salt to combat widespread malnutrition in the country.
Packaged foods makers across the world are working to supplement foods with healthier ingredients, not only under directives from governments but also to compete in categories with multiple players. Over the last one year, Nestle, PepsiCo and Cargill have announced global initiatives to package their foods such as noodles, seasoning, salty snacks and edible oils with nutrients such as iron, grain and vitamins.