Front-of-pack labels may destroy ethnic foods industry: Federation of Sweets & Namkeen Manufacturers

Snack foods companies are objecting to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India's (Fssai) proposal to implement front-of-pack warning labels with a star rating on all packaged foods, claiming that it would "destroy" the country's ethnic foods industry. The Federation of Sweets & Namkeen Manufacturers, which represents mid-size and large companies including the Haldiram Group, Bikanervala, Balaji Wafers and Greendot Health Foods have written to Fssai chief executive S Gopalakrishnan, stating that the proposed labelling model would hurt a majority of companies making foods such as chips, namkeens and ethnic sweets.

"The new proposal will be a big deterrent to Indian snacks and sweets companies," said Vikram Agarwal, managing director of Greendot Health Foods, which owns the Cornitos brand of salty snacks. "Consumers take their informed decisions, and they can be advised on the quantity of consumption, but not outright warnings on packs. Consumption of salt, sugar and fat changes every hundred kilometres in India," Agarwal said.

The labelling draft has proposed that packaged foods be given star ratings of one to five, classifying them as good, not good or unhealthy, based on their salt, sugar and fat content. In the letter dated November 10 to the Fssai CEO, the federation noted that India's traditional sweets and snacks were associated with festivals and customs and were made of fat, salt and/or sugar. "With the proposed model of front-of-pack labelling, a majority of packaged foods like peanut chikki, gajak, upma mix and besan laddu will fall under (the category of) 0.5-2.0 stars and will be classified as high in fat, salt and sugar for at least one nutrient," said the letter.


"This will impact 85% of the Indian traditional foods," it added.

ET has seen a copy of the letter.

Meanwhile, 30 parliament members from states including Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Andhra Pradesh, have written either to the Prime Minister's Office or health minister Mansukh Mandaviya, stating that the proposal had led to "fear among FMCG retailers, manufacturers and trade, and the labelling will classify more than 85% of Indian traditional foods and snacks unhealthy". The labelling guidelines have been in the discussion stage among government authorities, packaged foods companies and health activists for at least six years, but the proposal on star rating has come up only in the second week of September.

Foods companies have been resisting the proposals terming them faulty, while health activists have been urging the government to urgently implement easy-to-understand guidelines.

Ashim Sanyal, chief executive of consumer awareness group Consumer Voice, said: "This labelling will be a game-changer for all foods companies. Yes, the smaller ones will be impacted more but only in the short-term because they will have to invest in new packaging. But the companies should not fear because within five-six months, we expect the dynamics to settle down."

Some activist groups including Consumer Voice are opposing star ratings and are instead pushing for red and green symbols on the packs. "The consumer will not understand what one star or two stars mean. Instead, colour symbols (red for high salt and sugar; green for high nutrition) are easy for everyone to understand," Sanyal said.

"The star-rating system on front-of-pack-label is misleading as many unhealthy food products receive more stars purely because of the addition of healthy nutrients, which in fact mask the negative impact of the excessive use of critical nutrients of concern, that is salt, sugar and fats," said Arun Gupta, convener, Nutrition Advocacy in Public Interest.

There are no scientific studies to suggest that adding positive nutrients to unhealthy food products will reduce its risks, he said. The Fssai had last year mandated Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, to prepare a detailed report on front-of-pack labelling for packaged and processed foods.