One of India’s leading environmental watchdog institutions, the (CSE), recently organized a day-long public meeting in Delhi, titled ‘Food Talk,’ which took a close look at the complete gamut of issues related to food labelling, claims and advertisements. The Indian food and consumer laws, especially concerning the product information contained on the packaging, are grossly inadequate; they do not make it imperative for manufacturers to print the actual number of ingredients that go into the making of food products we buy. Equally lax are the laws to control false or misleading advertisements on food, especially by celebrities that have a major impact on purchase decisions.
The Consumer Protection Act
The proposed amendment to the Consumer Protection Act to rein in misleading or false endorsement by celebrities has many loopholes. CSE calls for a range of measures to contain the influence of unhealthy foods, some of which include a complete ban on celebrities endorsing such foods, and on advertisements of such foods. The opinions expressed by speakers at Food Talk was that celebrities should be banned from endorsing foods high in salt, sugar and fats. Also, advertisements for certain items such as non-dairy, non-fruit based sugar-sweetened products (soft drinks) should not be allowed.
Delivering her opening address at the briefing, Sunita Narain, director general, CSE said, “The government is considering making amendments to the Consumer Protection Act. This would include awarding five-year jail term or a penalty of Rs 50 lakh to hold celebrities responsible for false and misleading claims. But the same amendment says that there will be no liability if precautions are taken and due diligence is done before deciding to endorse a product. In other words, thisamendment amounts to nothing.”
Food labelling claim laws in India
As per the Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations 2011:
– Energy, along with the amount of proteins, carbohydrates and fats, is required to be declared. The quantity of sugar is to be specified along with that of carbohydrates.
– The information could be mentioned as per 100 gm or 100 ml or per serving of a product. In case of per serve declaration, serving measure is to be mentioned alongside.
– Only two kinds of claims are approved, based on content of nutrients, but mentioned as health claims.
What our food laws do not mandatorily require mention of are the amounts of salt/added sugar, dietary fibers, vitamins, minerals, fatty acids and cholesterol (mention might be made only in case of filing of a claim). Neither does India have a standardized serving size requirement; however, the condition for the claim “trans-fat free” has been based on serving size.
Amit Khurana, programme manager, Food Safety and Toxins team, CSE says, “In contrast to best practices in other parts of the world, there is no mention of several other types of nutrition claims. There is no list of approved or nonapproved health claims. Neither is there a mention of a need for an approval process, or the kind of scientific substantiation required. There is a clear trend of focusing on a single attribute of a product while making claims, completely missing the concept of wholesome food or balanced diet. A look at the content of a few popular packaged food claims suggests that these could be unhealthy due
to nutrients other than those claimed.”
Advertising regulations in India
Food advertisements in India come under the purview of various government departments and agencies. However, it is largely self-regulated through the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), which has no punitive powers of its own. The Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 has provisions to prohibit food advertisements that are misleading in nature. It, however, has no power to approve or monitor food advertisements by itself. It has a memorandum of understanding with ASCI, which primarily acts on complaints through its code on food advertisements.
One of the key issues is that of celebrities endorsing food products. The expert committee on Consumer Protection Bill, 2015 has recommended a penalty of Rs 10 lakh and imprisonment of up to two years or both for a first offence by a celebrity responsible for false and misleading claims. The penalty is Rs 50 lakh and five-year imprisonment for a second offence. “There are two problems with this proposal—one, manufacturers have not been held equally guilty and two, celebrities may not understand the science behind the claims and conduct due diligence,” shares Khurana. The way forward is for celebrities to make informed choices before endorsing products and to ensure that the products not just deliver what they promise to the consumer, but also comply by ingredient disclosure regulations, especially in their labels and packaging. They cannot, and should not, blindly follow brand managers who are often little inclined to care much about these finer details of FMCG products.
