Inside BENEO’s new pulse plant: pioneering sustainable protein from faba beans
Rashida Vapiwala, Founder, LabelBlind
The year 2025 marked a turning point in India’s food regulatory landscape, as the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) pursued a consultative, system-wide harmonisation of food labelling and claims with international and Codex Alimentarius standards, signalling a shift from interpretative flexibility to structured, data-driven enforcement and greater transparency and accountability for the food industry.
The year 2025 was remarkable for food regulation, with the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) taking important steps to align India’s food labelling and claims framework with international standards, particularly those set by the Codex Alimentarius. Rather than making sudden regulatory changes, the approach was consultative, capacity-building, and system-wide. It brought different stakeholders together to improve how food is labelled and advertised across the country.
The year saw an intensified push towards ‘Harmonising Food Labelling with Global and Codex Standards’. This included:
- National Consultations on Food Labelling & Claims: Moving from India-specific approaches to internationally recognised labelling standards that the world understands.
- Workshops on Advertising & Claims: Bringing Indian food claims practices closer to global food claim standards and principles.
- Technical Meetings on Nutrition Labelling: Adopting globally comparable nutrition information formats, customised for Indian eating habits.
- Water & Beverage Reviews: Recognising water as a critical public health category requiring stricter oversight, consistent with global practice.
- Export-Focused Support Programmes: Helping Indian companies understand that global standards are essential not just for domestic compliance, but for accessing international markets.
However, this is not all. There’s much more to the story of this year transforming the food regulation landscape in India.
The Bigger Picture: From Documentation to Digital Enforcement
The year 2025 marked a decisive shift in how India approaches food regulation. Previously, the system relied heavily on interpretation and paperwork. Now it’s becoming digitally traceable and enforcement-focused, where food claims, labels, and advertisements are no longer reviewed separately but as part of one integrated system.
For food companies, this meant one clear message: every statement seen by consumers must be factual, backed by evidence, and traceable. The changes touched multiple areas – from stricter controls on medical-style terms like ORS, to limiting absolute claims like “100%”, from requiring digital records of all advertisements to increased scrutiny of water products. The overall signal was unmistakable: food communication must be accurate and verifiable.
The ORS Issue: Drawing a Clear Line on Medical Claims
One of the biggest regulatory decisions in 2025 involved the term “ORS” (Oral Rehydration Salts), a medically recognised mixture used to treat dehydration.
Historically, many electrolyte drinks, hydration powders, and wellness beverages used the credibility of ORS to claim they were therapeutic or fast-acting hydration solutions. In 2025, FSSAI decisively ended this practice. The authority made clear that ORS is a therapeutic product, governed by the Drugs & Cosmetics Act and based on WHO specifications.
Going forward, food products cannot use ORS terminology, whether directly or indirectly, regardless of their format. This essentially means that the grey area, where food companies borrowed medical credibility, is now completely closed off. This decision set the tone for the year: medical claims belong in the drugs category, not food marketing.
The “100%” Trap: Why Absolute Claims Don’t Work
Another major development in 2025 involved cracking down on absolute claims using the word “100%”. While the Advertising & Claims Regulations from 2018 had warned against misleading claims, 2025 saw much stricter enforcement and clearer rules. The usage of “100%” is problematic because it signals an absolute, with-no-exceptions statement, whether about purity, safety, natural origin, or health benefits.
Claims like “100% Natural”, “100% Pure”, or “100% Healthy” are increasingly being rejected unless companies can prove them with exhaustive technical documentation covering all ingredients used, processing aids and additives, residue levels, as well as complete manufacturing processes.
For most food businesses, meeting this high standard of proof turned out to be impractical and costly. The result: in 2025, brands began shifting to more defensible language such as, “Made with natural ingredients”, “No added preservatives”, and “Naturally sourced”. The regulatory message was crystal clear: marketing exaggeration does not reduce legal accountability. Any absolute claim will be read literally, not creatively.
FoSCoS: Connecting Food Businesses to Their Claims Through Digital Systems
Perhaps the most important structural change in 2025 was integrating advertising and claims oversight into the FoSCoS (Food Safety Compliance System) ecosystem. Historically, labels were treated as regulatory documents while advertisements were treated as marketing communications. In 2025, however, this distinction disappeared.
Food companies became digitally accountable for claims appearing not just on physical labels, but also on company websites, e-commerce product descriptions, social media posts and promotions, as well as digital advertisements and influencer content. So, when complaints or regulatory issues arose, they were now linked back to the company’s FoSCoS licence record. This created a clear trail between what a brand claims publicly and its regulatory status. The transparency makes it harder for companies to maintain different standards across different channels.
Water: From Background to Center Stage
In 2025, packaged drinking water and water-based products moved from being treated as routine items to becoming a high-priority regulatory category. There are several reasons behind this. For starters, the consumption of packaged water is rising. Amidst this, companies were widely making unproven claims about purity, minerals, and health benefits – such as detoxification, boosting metabolism, reducing acidity, or therapeutic hydration.
To curb this, the FSSAI adopted a more cautious approach, scrutinising packaged drinking water, mineral water, alkaline water, and functional waters with added benefits. Companies are now required to produce accurate statements about where the water comes from, clear explanation of how the water is treated, and proof of claimed mineral content. This reflects a global recognition that water is not just a commodity; it’s a public health matter that requires careful oversight.
What the Data Shows: ASCI’s 2025 Findings
The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) provided crucial data in 2025 that supported regulatory concerns. Their research consistently showed that Food & Beverage companies were among the top violators, with most violations involving health and nutrition claims.
Several patterns emerged:
- Companies making exaggerated claims about immunity and functional benefits
- Misleading advertisements specifically targeting children
- Influencer content that either didn’t disclose paid partnerships or made promises without evidence
- Widespread non-compliance in digital advertising and social media campaigns
The most critical finding, however, was this: Just because a brand’s on-package labels are compliant doesn’t mean their advertisements are. Many companies that carefully reviewed their product labels failed to apply the same discipline to online descriptions and influencer scripts. ASCI’s findings were closely aligned with FSSAI’s rules and India’s Consumer Protection Act (2019). This meant that companies now face consequences from multiple directions – damaged reputation, regulatory action, and legal exposure.
Compliance is Now a Complete, Integrated System
All the developments of 2025 signalled a fundamental shift in how food regulation works in India. Compliance is no longer something confined to reviewing label designs or pre-launch checklists. It has become an integrated, ongoing responsibility that spans product development, marketing communication, digital presence, and consumer engagement.
The year 2025 also made it clear that:
- Medical terminology would be kept strictly separate from food marketing
- Absolute claims would face tough scrutiny
- Digital platforms would be actively monitored
- High-consumption categories like water would receive elevated oversight
- Advertising would be regulated as carefully as labelling
For food businesses, this narrows down the choice to two paths – build compliance into their digital systems and decision-making from the start to gain trust and stability, or stay stuck with old practices amidst rising regulatory risk and face reputational damage.
Looking Back: A Year of Transformation
In hindsight, 2025 will likely be remembered as the year India’s food labelling system transitioned from interpretation to enforcement, from paperwork to data, and from static labels to living compliance systems. The message to the industry was both a warning and an opportunity: the era of regulatory flexibility has ended. The era of transparency, accountability, and integration has begun.