Trade body raise concern against FSSAI’s new regulation

Indian Sellers Collective, an umbrella body of trade association, claims that the proposed regulation by FSSAI will destroy the MSME packaged food industry which is the mainstay for the vast body of Indian sellers outside of big retail

New Delhi, November 10: A umbrella body of trade association has raised concern against FSSAI’s new proposal that may create a setback for local Indian food manufacturers. Indian Sellers Collective has said that FSSAI’s FOPNL (INR) – Front of Pack Nutrition Labelling (Indian Nutrition Rating) Regulation will lead to ethnic Indian foods being classified as unhealthy & cause severe loss of business to MSME.

Under FOPNL, packaged items will be given star ratings like ‘one-star food’, ‘two-star food’, and therefore ‘good-food’, ‘not-good food’, etc. based on their salt, sugar, & fat content. ISC has expressed concerns saying that FOPNL will cause loss of business to MSME packaged food manufacturers & sellers and open the floodgates for western packaged food to capture the Indian markets.

Dhairyashil Patil, President, All India Consumer Products Distributors Federation (AICPDF), has warned that adoption of FONPL will go on to destroy the market for traditional Indian packaged foods.

“Disrupting the food industry will also have a negative impact on our farmers and poor unskilled retailers hugely impacting their livelihoods. This will completely disrupt the Indian market for food products”, he said.

The ISC has also noted that the draft notification by FSSAI also provides list of solid foods/liquid foods which will be exempted from FOPNL. ISC has alleged that the exemption list, however, disregards Indian origin food product categories.