Experts call for nutritional labelling regulations

‘Present system not prominent and easily comprehensible’

The need for faster implementation of regulations related to front-of-pack labelling (FoPL) was stressed during an online discussion organised by the Citizen consumer and civic Action Group (CAG) in association with Women’s Christian College on Friday.

S. Saroja, executive director of CAG, said while the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) was working on FoPL for a few years now, there was a need to expedite the process owing to the increasing prevalence of non-communicable diseases.

She said the present labelling of nutritional content of a product was neither prominent nor easily comprehensible to common people. Citing the example of using green and yellow to mark vegetarian and non-vegetarian food, Ms. Saroja said a similar simpler system was needed to show whether a product had high sugar, salt and fat content.