NEW DELHI: A day after FSSAI filed its compliance affidavit on front-of-pack warning labels, former FSSAI CEO Pawan Kumar Agarwal said he was comfortable with the regulator’s position, provided the transition period leads to significant improvement in the nutritional composition of packaged foods.Agarwal, through the Food Future Foundation, filed an intervention application in the Supreme Court on September 22 in the ongoing case on front-of-pack warning labels. The application seeks to assist the court on the questions it had raised on the design, scientific basis and implementation of the proposed warning system.The intervention says the transition period should drive progressive reformulation, not merely allow companies to change packaging. It proposes interim nutrient thresholds, followed by tighter limits over three to five years, with milestones and timelines announced upfront.It also recommends that any one nutrient crossing the prescribed threshold should trigger a warning, so a beverage high in sugar, for instance, cannot escape a warning because it remains below the sodium and saturated fat limits.The intervention cites a NatFirst analysis of 44,109 barcode records of packaged, branded food products available at retail in India. It found that 94.1% of the records exceeded at least one nutrient threshold, while 85.3% of those classified as high in fat, sugar and salt exceeded two or more thresholds.The figures are not weighted by sales or consumption, and NatFirst said they do not establish that individual products are unsafe, unhealthy or non-compliant. The Foundation has also proposed product-level modelling to set interim thresholds and assess their impact on warnings and reformulation.FSSAI’s September 23 affidavit proposes a single-phase rollout, with about four months to finalise the regulations, followed by a 60-day stakeholder and World Trade Organization consultation and a 365-day implementation period for food businesses. It has a red hexagon on a white square. One nutrient crossing the threshold would be named in the hexagon, while two or three would be listed together.
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However, NAPi has opposed putting multiple nutrients in a single hexagon, saying each nutrient should have a separate warning. It has also sought larger, bolder warnings, with their size linked to the package’s principal display area.NAPi has further called for implementation by July 2027 or earlier, instead of 2028, and questioned the use of “added sugar”, arguing that total sugar should also be considered. It cited an ICMR-NIN communication calling for the 2024 Dietary Guidelines to be applied as an integrated framework, including energy density and total nutrient levels.