FSSAI constitutes expert panel to look into food labelling standards

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has constituted an expert panel to look into the draft of Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2018. The panel will be headed by B. Sesikeran, former director of the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), and will also comprise NIN’s current director Hemalatha and Dr Nikhil Tandon.

The food safety regulator had come out with the draft in April 2018. The regulations have proposed making red colour-coded labels mandatory on packaged food products which are high in fat, sugar and salt contents.

Pawan Kumar Agarwal, CEO of FSSAI, said, “Our pre-draft was ready and sent to the Health Ministry. Since there were concerns expressed by some stakeholders, we have kept it on hold for time being and a group of experts from health and nutrition background has been set up to look into the issue of labelling once again”.

“It is difficult to ask consumers to change their eating habits as some eat mindlessly, while some cannot differentiate between healthy and unhealthy food products”, Agarwal said while pitching for bringing in strong labelling norms at the earliest.