New Delhi: The Supreme Court has expressed strong displeasure over the lax attitude of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) regarding the rule of placing health warnings on packaged food products. Hearing a plea seeking transparent information on excessive amounts of sugar, fat, salt and sodium in packaged foods sold in the market, the court asked the regulatory body as to why there was so much delay in implementing these warnings on the packaging. During the hearing, the petitioner's side pointed out before the court the changing stand of FSSAI.

accused of reneging on promise

The petitioner's counsel argued that the main points on which FSSAI had agreed with stakeholders regarding health labeling on food items during earlier meetings were agreed upon.
Now the organization has completely retreated from them. The regulatory authority has taken a sudden U-turn from previous decisions, casting a cloud of uncertainty over this important matter to the health safety of consumers.

Debate on ICMR guidelines and testing standards

In the court, senior advocate Maninder Singh presented his views in detail on the methods of checking the quality of packaged food. Referring to the guidelines of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), he suggested that testing of food items should not be done in only one way.
In order to provide true and accurate information to the consumer, products should be tested on a standard quantity basis of 100 grams as well as on a per serving basis. This will make it easier for the general public to understand how much salt, sugar or fat they are consuming at one go.

Justice Pardiwala's statement

Seeing the seriousness of the matter, Justice Pardiwala, a member of the bench, clarified that the court has also done a thorough study on this entire subject at its own level. He informed that the Supreme Court is issuing a detailed order in this regard. The lawyers as well as the Central Government and FSSAI were directed to study this order in depth, so that further concrete action can be taken on the matter in the next hearing. This entire matter is to the demand for putting health warning labels on packaged food items, which is considered very important to alert the common people about the serious ill effects of excessive fat, sugar and salt.