Citing industry’s opposition to warning labels on food packets, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has suggested a tabular declaration of the recommended daily requirement of added sugar, saturated fats and salt.The FSSAI’s affidavit filed in the Supreme Court only mentions the food industry’s opposition but has ignored the evidence in favour of warning label to help discourage consumption of foods high in added saturated fats, sugar and salt submitted by civil society representatives.FSSAI’s ‘compliance’ affidavit in response to the Supreme Court order directing it to frame Front of Pack labelling regulation states that a “majority of industry organizations were against the inclusion of ‘warning labels’ on the product,” and goes on to suggest a nutrition table giving “the daily allowance for added sugar, added saturated fat and salt vis a vis their presence in per serve of packed food product” on the front of the pack.“The proposed numerical table format being suggested by FSSAI would force consumers to do math at the supermarket shelf. The FSSAI has called it a ‘compliance’ affidavit but in reality, it is defiance. The Supreme Court had explicitly said that the exercise so far had not yielded any positive or good result and it had given FSSAI four weeks to revert. And six months later, FSSAI has filed an affidavit that abandons warning labels altogether and avoids defining HFSS (high fat, salt and sugar) foods.
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Clearly, FSSAI has bowed to food industry’s interests,” said Dr Arun Gupta of Nutrition Advocacy in Public Interest (NAPi).FSSAI stated in the affidavit that it had held a stakeholder consultation on March 19, 2026 involving consumer groups, food industry representatives and farmer organisations. It stated that industry bodies argued that “consumers should be able to make an informed decision without creating fear amongst the consumers”. The affidavit was silent on the input given by consumer organisations, which had sought warning labels that have been shown to be the most effective in reducing consumption of junk food high in salt, sugar and saturated fats in several countries. NAPi had also given FSSAI evidence generated from studies conducted in India and other countries showing how effective warning labels are.
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