Misleading food ads and regulations to curtail them

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CategoryPolity

Last Updated10/05/2023

The Advertisement Monitoring Committee at the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) flagged 32 fresh cases of food business operators (FBOs) making misleading claims and advertisements.
They were found to be in contravention of the Food Safety and Standards (Advertisements & Claims) Regulations, 2018

FSSAI seeks that the advertisements and claims be truthful, unambiguous, meaningful, not misleading and help consumers to comprehend the information provided.
Claims must be scientifically substantiated by validated methods of characterising or quantifying the ingredient or substance that is the basis for the claim.
According to the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), food advertising has been a “fairly violative sector”.
Last month, an uproar ensued after allegations were made against health drink Bournvita.

Natural: A food product can be referred to as ‘natural’ if it is a single food derived from a recognised natural source and has nothing added to it.
- Therefore, composite foods - a mixture of plant and processed constituents, can be called ‘made from natural ingredients’ instead of ‘natural’.
Fresh: It can be used for products which are not processed in any manner other than washing, peeling, chilling, trimming, cutting or irradiation by ionising radiation (not exceeding 1 kGy to delay in ripening, killing of insects/pests, etc).
- The regulations forbid the ‘fresh’ reference if the processing endeavours to achieve an extension in the shelf-life of the product (may instead use ‘fresh frozen’).
Pure and original:
- ‘Pure’ is to be used for single-ingredient foods to which nothing has been added and which are devoid of all avoidable contamination.
- ‘Original’ is used to describe food products made to a formulation, with a traceable origin that has remained unchanged over time.
Nutritional claims:
- Nutritional claims may either be about the specific contents of a product or comparisons with some other foodstuff.
- Claims of equivalence such as “contains the same of (nutrient) as a (food)” or “as much (nutrient) as a (food)” may be used in the labelling.
- According to the ASCI, most complaints of misleading Ads were related to the nutrition of a product, its benefits and the ingredient mix not being based on adequate evidence.

The Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006:
- It prohibits product claims suggesting suitability for prevention, alleviation, treatment or cure of a disease, disorder or particular psychological condition unless specifically permitted under the Act.
- Making deceptive claims or advertisements are punishable offences and may invite penalties of up to Rs 10 lakh apart from suspension/cancellation of licences for repeated offences.
The Food Safety and Standards (Advertisements & Claims) Regulations 2018: The focus of the regulation is to make the Companies accountable for their claims on food products and cater to the interest of customers.
The Consumer Protection Act 2019: Under this, Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) was set up as a regulatory body in relation to matters (such as wrong advertisements) affecting rights of consumers.
The Programme and Advertising Codes: These are prescribed under the Cable Television Network Rules 1994 and underlines that advertisements must not give claims which are difficult to be proved.

FBOs must desist from making any unscientific and/or exaggerated claims and advertisements to promote their product sales to avoid enforcement actions and in larger consumer interest.
They must be in consonance with principles of Good Clinical Practices (GCP) and peer-reviewed or published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.