The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India’s (FSSAI) move to implement a front-of-the-pack health star ratings proposal has run into rough weather because of the lack of consensus among the food companies, health organisations, consumer activists and the food regulator on the issue.

Officials of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) are of the view that ratings will be ineffective in curbing consumption of unhealthy foods and direct warning labels would be more effective. Packaged food firms, on the other hand, said they prefer star ratings. So far, food companies in India are mandated to print basic nutrient information on the back of the packs only. However, globally it’s the front-pack labelling which has proven to reduce consumption of unhealthy foods.

The FSSAI, under the ministry of health and family welfare, had issued a draft regulation proposing the star rating-based labelling system in September last year, the biggest labelling reform for packaged foods in India.

It had sought comments till November and the final guidelines were expected within two months.

According to the star rating proposal — the first such labelling norms in India — a higher number of stars implies healthier choices and need to be displayed on front of the packs.

Star ratings is symbol-based labelling and does not specify the amount of salt, sugar or fat content upfront in the form of written text. The ratings are calculated on the basis of the quantity of healthy and unhealthy nutrients, unlike direct warning labels which will only specify high excess salt, sugar or fats.

But executives who have been in meetings with the regulator over the last few weeks said the final guidelines have been delayed now because of the lack of consensus among food companies, health advocates and nutritionists and the FSSAI. “We have received 11,000 comments from stakeholders and are in the middle of evaluating those,” said a senior FSSAI official in response to ET’s query.Ashim Sanyal, chief executive of activist body Consumer Voice and former member of the Central Advisory Committee of FSSAI, said, “The health star ratings misinform consumers and do not compel industry to make their food products healthier whereas a warning label provides instant recognition of unhealthy foods.”

MIDDLE GROUND
But the chief of a large packaged food company has a different view. “In a country where malnutrition remains a big problem, there is no logic in putting direct warning labels on biscuits or flavoured milk, which do contain sugar but are essential foods. We prefer star ratings since it would be a sort of middle ground,” he said.