FSSAI Draft Regulation on FOPL

On 13th September 2022, The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) issued draft regulations FSS (Labelling and Display) Amendment Regulations, 2022. The FSSAI has proposed Star Ratings based on nutritional values termed as ‘Indian Nutrition Rating’ (INR) which rates the overall nutritional profile for packaged food by assigning ½ star (least healthy) to 5 stars (healthiest). According to the regulation, more stars indicate that the food product is better positioned to provide for daily human need of nutrients.

Read the regulation here

Important points of the Draft Regulation that are contentious

 Section 1 (2) – Compliance shall be voluntary until a period of 48 months from the date of final notification of these regulations and mandatory thereafter.

Section 2 (1) (ia). FOPNL is a form of supplementary nutrition information that presents simplified nutrition information on the front-of-pack of pre-packaged foods. It can include symbols/graphics, text or a combination thereof that provide information on the overall nutritional value of the food and/or on nutrients included in the FOPNL

Section 2 (2) (a). (a) in sub-regulation (2), after clause (b), the following proviso shall be inserted, namely, – “provided that the percentage of Fruits, Vegetable, Nuts, Legumes & Millets, if present in the food product, shall be declared”.

  1. (2) (b)

The INR system rates the overall nutritional profile for packaged food by assigning it a rating from ½ star (least healthy) to 5 stars (healthiest). More stars indicate that the food product is better positioned to provide for daily human need of nutrients.

Schedule III. Table 1

Baseline reference values for Food risk factors and minimum percentage of positive factor per 100 gm or 100 ml on ‘as sold’ basis.

Objections or suggestions were invited by FSSAI after the publication of the draft regulation. Thousands of comments were submitted by experts, consumers, students and activists across India. Some of the comments submitted by experts, consumers and activists are given below:

 Comment submitted by Consumer VOICE | Comments submitted by students | Comment submitted by women | Comment submitted by Nutritionists

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