Food safety and standards regulation

An issue that comes up particularly for lawyers is whether or not food and the claims about food are real

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India [FSSAI] shares public concerns about food labelling, and late last year published a set of regulations called the Food Safety and Standards (Advertising and Claims) Regulations, 2018 to govern what claims can be made on packaged food and advertising for food. A draft of the regulations was originally published on 13 March 2018 for comment, and the final version was published on 19 November 2018.

The regulations are in force and all companies engaged in the manufacture and distribution of food were to be compliant before 1 July 2019.

Types of conditions

The regulations are aimed at governing and regulating claims and statements made on product packaging and advertisements, and broadly cover the following:

• Nutrition claims (including nutrient content or nutrient comparative claims);
• Non-addition claims (including non-addition of sugars and sodium salts);
• Health claims (reduction of disease risk);
• Claims related to dietary guidelines or healthy diets;
• Conditional claims;
• Claims that are specifically prohibited.

While the regulations define and list out the types of claims, they have also listed a schedule, which contains the criteria to legitimately make such a claim.

For instance, you can claim that your product is “fat free” if there is less than 0.5g of fat per 100g for solids, or per 100ml for liquids.