India Proposes Traffic Light Labelling Measure for Packaged Food

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is proposing to introduce a traffic light labelling measure, with red spots being used to warn of high fat, sugar or salt content in packaged foods, FoodNavigator-Asia.com has reported last month.  The FSSAI said these would form the Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2018. 

The draft regulation requires packaged food manufacturers and firms to declare nutritional information such as calories (energy), total fat, trans-fat, total sugar and salt per serve, as well as per serve percentage contribution to the recommended dietary allowance (RDA). The new label will be front-of-pack.  Other requirements in the comprehensive set of guidelines include a symbol on the label indicating whether it is vegetarian or non-vegetarian food (a green triangle or brown circle, respectively). Most significantly, it would be mandatory for food products with high fat, sugar or salt content to display a red-coloured mark on the front-of-pack label.

Recently, the FSSAI also proposed introducing a traffic light labelling scheme for foods sold in school canteens and vending machines, in a bid to curb consumption of sugary drinks, heavily processed foods and confectionery by children.  The draft also stated that authorities will ensure that there will be no sale of high fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) content foods such as deep-fried foods, sugar-sweetened beverages, processed foods and confectionery in or within 50m of the school premises.