Sections of health experts on Tuesday asked India’s apex food regulatory authority to withdraw its directive to eliminate a currently mandatory cautionary label on iron-fortified food for people with sickle cell anaemia and thalassemia.

The experts have asked the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to reinstate the advisory that says: “People with thalassemia may take (iron-fortified products) under medical supervision and persons with sickle cell anaemia are advised not to consume iron-fortified products.”

The decision to omit the warning label imposed after a scientific assessment “poses a risk to the health and well-being of individuals living with these genetic blood disorders”, the experts said in a letter to the FSSAI.

The FSSAI had on July 19 issued a direction omitting the cautionary label and the Centre on September 18 published a draft gazette notification for amendments that propose the omission of the label, allowing the public to respond to the proposal within 60 days.

The experts, including physicians, public health specialists and medical ethicists, have cited concerns that extra iron consumption by people with thalassemia or sickle cell anaemia can enhance their risk of developing liver cirrhosis and heart failure, among other disorders.

They said the proposal to omit the warning label is “surprising” because the FSSAI had included it in the rules after scientific discussions, whereas the decision to drop the label is “at the initiative of another ministry which has no mandate of food safety”.

The department of food and public distribution (DFPD) in the Union consumer affairs ministry had written to the FSSAI in May last year to initiate a process to review the label, arguing that no country has mandated such a warning label.

“This reasoning ignores the fact that India’s conditions related to contra-indications, poverty and malnutrition could be unique,” the experts wrote in a joint letter sent to the FSSAI on Tuesday while adding that the DFPD’s mandate is procurement and distribution.

But a committee under the Indian Council of Medical Research had in January also recommended the removal of the warning label, prompting the health ministry to write to the FSSAI, suggesting the removal.