FSSAI CEO Talks About Labelling Of Packaged Food During Workshop For Media

Pawan Agarwal addresses concerns and question about labelling on packaged food and other key points at a workshop on food fortification for the media. During the meeting he said that regulations for labelling of packaged food products will soon come into force reports Money Control. He also spoke about labelling on restaurant menus and addressed concerns on nutrition.

Regulations On Labelling

“As far as labelling is concerned, one is packaged food’s labelling whose regulations are being framed. Now main issue that is cropping up in this is which food will be called healthy and which food will be called not so healthy,” Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) CEO Pawan Agarwal said reports Money Control. “Industry views, scientific/medical community views on this are being reconciled after which labelling regulations will be issued soon,” he added.

For labelling of menu in restaurants he stated, “As far as restaurant food is concerned, where fixed menu is there or what we called Quick Service Restaurants (QSRs), menu labelling can be done, but where chef prepares food, menu labelling is almost impossible. However, gradually menu labelling has been implemented in some countries, including recently in the United States.”

Addressing Concerns On Nutrition

Agarwal told the media that the Women and Child Development Ministry and the HRD Ministry have already promised to make fortified staples available for the mid-day meals reports Money Control. Talking about food fortification he said, “In fact, globally fortification is the main and easiest way of addressing micro nutrient deficiencies practiced over hundreds of years, it is not new if our nutrition problem gets solved by adding fortificant and if for this we have to import, what is the harm”