India’s apex food regulatory authority has approved a proposal that will require manufacturers to display saturated fat, salt and sugar levels in “bold letters” and “large fonts” on labels of packaged food items, the Union health ministry said on Saturday.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has said the decision, taken at its 44th meeting, will empower consumers to better understand the nutritional value of food items. The proposal for the changes will be placed in the public domain for suggestions and objections, it said.

But health experts campaigning for stronger health messages on packaged food products have described the FSSAI’s move as an incremental step. One physician and public health expert said the proposal “does not match and should not replace” front-of-the-pack warning labels.

Current food regulations require all packaged food items to display their nutrition content, calories per unit food, and levels of fat, salt, sugar, added sugar, among other ingredients. The FSSAI said the proposed rules on bold letters and large font sizes would empower consumers and help curb the rise of non-communicable diseases.

A public health expert said the current rules require nutrition information to be provided on the back of the pack.

“This is a small step that does not match and should not replace what we really need —front-of-the-pack warnings about high salt, sugar and fat,” said Arun Gupta, convener of the Nutrition Advocacy in Public Interest (NAPI), a consortium of physicians
and public health experts campaigning for stronger food labelling.

The NAPI had on Friday released a report flagging concerns that the FSSAI had not fined nor taken punitive action against at least 32 advertisements that its own committee had deemed as misleading.

“The information about high fat, sugar and salt levels in a food product should be available on the advertisements themselves,” Gupta said.

Local Circles, a community social media platform, also described the FSSAI decision on bold letters and large fonts as a “small step in the right direction but one that falls short of consumer expectations”.

After a nationwide community survey last year, Local Circles had written to the FSSAI seeking a mandatory red bar at the front of the pack for food items with high fat, sugar and salt.