FSSAI should include total, not added fat, sugar for food labels - NGO to SC
This story was originally published at 15:38 IST on 25 September 2026
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NEW DELHI – The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India should base its threshold for labelling foods and drinks on the basis of total sugar and total fat, not added sugar and added fat, for its display in upfront labelling on packaged foods, 3S and Our Health Society Public Charitable Trust, a non-profit organisation, told the Supreme Court Friday. It said added sugar or fat cannot be verified in a finished product.
A laboratory can measure total sugar and total fat but cannot distinguish chemically between sugar added at the factory and sugar inherently present once the two are mixed, said the organisation, the petitioner in the case. The quantity "added" is known only from what happens inside the premises of the food business operators, said the petitioner. It cannot be cross-checked by the consumer, and it can be checked by the enforcement officer only on the operator's own records, it said. A warning criterion that cannot be tested cannot be enforced, it added.
An added-sugar criterion is also open to misuse, said the petitioner. A product may be sweetened with fruit juice concentrate, fruit pulp, jaggery or other ingredients which are as metabolically harmful as sugar, while claiming "no added sugar" and escaping the warning altogether, it said. Such a product would carry a clean front of pack while carrying the same total sugar and energy load, it added.
On trans-fat, the petitioner said the food safety regulator may, in consultation with experts, consider a separate front-of-pack warning where industrial trans-fat is present, and in any event a product containing trans-fat must not be treated as within threshold. Trans-fat being totally eliminated may be the best way forward, it said.
The petitioner contested the food safety regulator's statement that food business operators will get a year from the date of notification to comply with upfront labelling on packaged foods to specify products high in added fat, added sugar and salt, as well as specified sweetened beverages. The apex court should direct that the regulation on food warning labels would come into force on final publication, without any voluntary period and without waiting for Jul. 1, said the petitioner.
Food business operators should complete the redesign of packaging within one month of notification; that all packaging printed thereafter carry the warning label; and that packaging already printed be used only with a sticker of the mandated size, format and position affixed before the product reaches the consumer, it said. The petitioner sought that the process initiated by the food safety regulator through draft regulations notified in 2022 should be treated as continuing, it should notify the warning-label regulation forthwith, without a fresh open ended dilatory stakeholder consultation.
The food safety regulator should provide a separate hexagon for each nutrient of concern, each bearing a pictorial representation of that nutrient together with the words in English and in Hindi in Devanagari script, said the petitioner. The regulator should prescribe the size of the warning label as a percentage of the principal display panel, with a bold font relative to the size of the hexagon, placed on the right side of the front of the pack on a contrasting background, and to reserve the hexagon exclusively for products exceeding a threshold, it said. In addition, the front-of-pack declaration "CONTAINS NON CALORIC SWEETENER" should be mandatory, said the petitioner.
The petitioner sought that the court direct the food safety regulator to define ultra-processed foods and place on record a proposal for their front-of-pack indication within two months, independently of and without delaying the nutrient warning labels. The food safety regulator's affidavit does not offer any warning for ultra-processed foods, no timeline for defining it and no plan to do so, it said.
The court was hearing a public interest litigation initiated by 3S and Our Health seeking direction to the government, states, and the food regulator to mandate front-of-package warning labels on packaged foods. The petitioner said warnings on the front of packaging are a powerful tool to empower consumers to make informed choices about their diet and reduce the adverse impact of big corporations' commercial interests. On Wednesday, the food safety regulator had filed an affidavit, specifying the steps it would take to enforce food warning labels. Responding to those steps, the petitioner filed an affidavit on Friday. End
Reported by Surya Tripathi
Edited by Avishek Dutta
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