New Delhi, 28 September (H.S.): The Supreme Court has reserved its judgment in a case concerning the adverse impact of excessive sugar, salt and fat content in packaged food on children’s health. A Bench headed by Justice J.B. Pardiwala questioned the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) over its request for one year to comply with the proposed measures. The court also raised questions regarding the definition of added sugar.

The court directed all parties to file their written submissions within one week. During the hearing, when the FSSAI sought one year to implement the proposed warning-label guidelines, the court questioned why such a long period was being sought when the matter concerned public health. The court observed that the entire exercise was being undertaken in the interest of citizens and expressed the expectation that the FSSAI would accept and implement the court’s directions in their true spirit.

During an earlier hearing on September 10, the Supreme Court had also expressed concern over the adverse impact of packaged food on children’s health. The court had directed the FSSAI to take stringent steps to implement clear warning labels at the earliest. The FSSAI had proposed placing a red-coloured warning symbol on the front of food packages.

The petition was filed by a trust named 3S and Our Health Society. During the hearing, counsel appearing for the petitioner submitted that highly processed snacks such as Kurkure were being placed on a similar footing with nutritious foods such as eggs and salted cashews. The counsel further argued that, to avoid confusion with the green symbol used for vegetarian products and the red symbol used for non-vegetarian products, a different and clearly identifiable colour should be used for warning labels on highly processed foods.

Earlier in the proceedings, the FSSAI had filed an affidavit stating that it was planning to introduce a red, six-sided warning symbol on the front of packages containing high levels of salt, sugar and fat. Based on the ‘Dietary Guidelines for Indians 2024’ issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research–National Institute of Nutrition (ICMR-NIN), the proposed symbol would clearly carry labels such as ‘High Fat’, ‘High Sugar’ or ‘High Salt’, enabling consumers to identify the nutritional warning immediately upon viewing the package.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar