80% Consumers Want Front-Of-Pack Warnings On High Sugar, Salt Food: Survey

80 per cent of Indian consumers want packaged foods and beverage products to carry a warning label if they are high in even one of sugar, salt or fat. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) submitted a proposal in the Supreme Court on August 28 to provide information to consumers related to added sugar, fat and salt in pictorial form on the front of the pack of food products. According to the proposal, a red hexagonal warning on packaged foods and beverages will carry declarations such as "High Sugar", "High Salt", "High Fat" or "Highly Sweetened Beverage". FSSAI's proposal has a two-phase rollout. In the first phase, the red warning would apply only to products that are high in two or more of added sugar, salt and added saturated fat, along with certain sweetened beverages, while products high in only one of these nutrients would carry no warning until the second phase. This means products high in a single ingredient, such as sugar, fat or salt, will be exempted from the warning requirement. Following this proposal, the majority of consumers in a survey said that they want a warning label on products that are high in even one of sugar, salt or fat from the beginning and not in the second phase of the proposal. The survey was conducted by LocalCircles, an online community platform that conducts polls on public and consumer issues. Out of the 23,516 responses received, 80 per cent want FSSAI to make a warning label mandatory from the beginning if a product is high in even one of sugar, salt or saturated fat. When asked if the size of the warning label mattered, 88 per cent of the 23,491 respondents to the question said the warning should be large, clearly visible and immediately noticeable when looking at the front of the pack. According to the FSSAI proposal, the warning label will only indicate the added sugar, salt and added saturated fat in the product. On this question, 53 per cent of 20,525 respondents said the warning should be based on the total amount of sugar, salt and saturated fat present in the product. 88 per cent of 20,068 respondents to a question on the timeframe for the implementation of the rule said implementation should happen within 6 months. 62 per cent of the 108,000 respondents, located across 328 districts, were men, while 38 per cent were women. 45 per cent of respondents were from tier 1, 31 per cent from tier 2 and 24 per cent were from tier 3, 4 and 5 districts.