A parliamentary standing committee on consumer affairs has recommended that the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) swiftly implement front-of-pack nutrition labelling rules to clearly display sugar content in packaged foods meant for children.
Doctors and nutrition experts have repeatedly raised concerns that many children’s packaged foods contain high levels of sugar. The committee noted that consumers currently lack a simple, easy-to-read front-of-pack system to understand how much sugar has been added.
The panel, chaired by DMK MP Kanimozhi, said consumer clarity should be treated as essential and not limited to merely setting permissible limits. It urged mandatory classification of sugar content in line with recommendations of the World Health Organization and the Indian Council of Medical Research.
Among its key suggestions, the committee called for all packaged foods to separately declare total sugar and added sugar. For children’s foods, it recommended stating added sugar per serving (in grams) and indicating what percentage it represents of the daily energy requirement for that age group.
The committee also proposed using a simple visual system—such as red, yellow and green colour codes or warning symbols for high-sugar products—on the front of packs. It flagged that draft front-of-pack labelling rules issued in 2022 have not been finalised for over two years and asked FSSAI to avoid further delay and implement them quickly.
