Front-of-pack nutrition labelling to be rolled out in single phase, FSSAI tells Supreme Court
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) informed the Supreme Court that front-of-pack nutrition labelling (FoPL) for packaged foods will now be rolled out in a single phase, replacing an earlier two-stage proposal.
The regulator sought a four-month period to issue and finalise the draft regulations, including a mandatory stakeholder consultation window of about 60 days conducted domestically and through the World Trade Organization notification process.
This would be followed by a 365-day voluntary compliance window for food businesses, intended to avoid commercial losses from existing stocks of pre-printed packaging.
Under the proposed design, packaged foods exceeding prescribed thresholds for any nutrient of concern (added sugar, added fat, or salt) would carry a red hexagon warning symbol on a white background on the front of the pack, naming the nutrient(s) involved.
The submission was made in response to a pending public interest litigation seeking mandatory warning labels on packaged foods high in sugar, salt, and saturated fat.
The Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 and FSSAI
The Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 consolidated multiple earlier food-related laws into a single statute and established the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) as the statutory regulator responsible for laying down science-based standards for food articles and regulating their manufacture, storage, distribution, sale, and import.
Key Details
- Section 4 makes FSSAI a body corporate with perpetual succession, empowered to acquire and hold property and to sue or be sued.
- Section 5 provides for the Authority's composition: a Chairperson and 22 members, of whom at least one-third must be women.
- Section 92 empowers FSSAI to frame regulations, with prior Central Government approval and after "previous publication" — meaning a draft notification followed by a public/stakeholder comment period, the same process being followed for the FoPL rules.
The FoPL rules FSSAI is finalising under the Supreme Court's watch will be issued as regulations under Section 92 of the Act, following the same draft-notification and consultation process used for FSSAI's other food-safety regulations.
Front-of-Pack Labelling (FOPL) as a Public Health Tool
Front-of-pack labelling schemes are used internationally as a nutrition-policy instrument against the rising burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) linked to excess consumption of sugar, salt, and fat. The World Health Organization has recommended FOPL as one of the cost-effective ("best buy") interventions for NCD prevention.
Key Details
- Chile pioneered mandatory black octagon warning labels in 2016; several Latin American countries (Mexico, Peru) have adopted similar warning-label systems.
- An alternative approach uses interpretive/summary systems such as Nutri-Score (used in parts of Europe) or star ratings, which rate overall healthfulness rather than flagging individual nutrients of concern.
- India's regulator had earlier considered a health-star rating model before moving toward the current nutrient-specific warning-label (red hexagon) approach.
India's shift to a warning-label design rather than a summary star-rating system aligns its approach with the "warning label" school of FOPL regulation used in Chile and other Latin American countries, rather than the "interpretive" school used in parts of Europe.
The Supreme Court, PIL, and the Right to Health
The case before the Supreme Court originated as a public interest litigation seeking mandatory front-of-pack warnings on packaged foods high in sugar, salt, and saturated fat. Supreme Court directions in the matter have driven FSSAI's shift from a phased to a single-phase regulatory proposal.
Key Details
- PILs invoking the Supreme Court's writ jurisdiction under Article 32 have historically been used to compel regulatory or executive action on consumer-protection and public-health matters.
- Such litigation is typically anchored in Article 21 (right to life, judicially interpreted to include the right to health) read with Article 47 (a Directive Principle obliging the State to raise nutrition levels and improve public health).
- The matter has been the subject of repeated hearings through 2026, with the Court seeking specific timelines from FSSAI and the Central Government.
This is a case of the judiciary using PIL jurisdiction to accelerate consumer-protection rulemaking, prompting FSSAI to compress its FoPL rollout into a single phase with a defined four-month regulatory timeline.
- FSSAI sought four months to issue and finalise draft FoPL regulations, including a roughly 60-day stakeholder consultation window (domestic and WTO notification).
- Proposed industry transition/compliance period: 365 days after the regulations are finalised.
- Labelling design: a red hexagon on a white background naming the nutrient(s) of concern (added sugar, added fat, or salt) that exceed prescribed thresholds.
- FSS Act 2006: FSSAI composition prescribed under Section 5 (Chairperson plus 22 members); regulation-making power under Section 92.