FSSAI says regulations on packaged food labeling will be issued soon

Food regulator FSSAI today said the regulations pertaining to labeling of packaged food products are being framed and will be issued soon.

"As far as labeling is concerned, one is packaged food's labeling whose regulations are being framed. Now the main issue that is cropping up in this is which food will be called healthy and which food will be called not so healthy," Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) CEO Pawan Agarwal said.

"Industry views, scientific/medical community views on this are being reconciled after which labeling regulations will be issued soon," he told reporters here while replying to a question.

A workshop was organized here to sensitize the local media about the importance of food fortification.

"As far as restaurant food is concerned, where the fixed menu is there or what we called Quick Service Restaurants (QSRs), menu labeling can be done, but where the chef prepares food, menu labeling is almost impossible," he said.

"However, gradually menu labeling has been implemented in some countries, including recently in the United States," the CEO said.

Taking into account their experience, there is a proposal in India for restaurants having a chain of more than 20 outlets for having menu labeling in QSRs with a fixed menu.

"Regulations in this regard are being framed and will be issued soon," Agarwal said.

He said the Women and Child Development Ministry and the HRD Ministry have already committed to providing fortified staples in mid-day meal scheme, in Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programmes, double fortified salt has been mandated three years ago.

When asked about some controversies surrounding food fortification, Agarwal said, "In fact, globally fortification is the main and easiest way of addressing micronutrient deficiencies practiced over hundreds of years, it is not new... if our nutrition problem gets solved by adding fortificant and if for this we have to import, what is the harm."

"I think these are some kind of confusions that are being created in the minds of people. Fortunately, those who are creating such confusion are minuscule in number," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)