Food safety regulator FSSAI said it is in the process of collecting pan-India samples of Nestle’s Cerelac baby cereals, amid a global report that claimed the company was adding higher sugar content in the product.
“We are collecting samples (of Nestle’s Cerelac baby cereals) from across the country. It will take 15-20 days to complete the process,” Food Safety and Standards Authority (FSSAI) CEO G Kamala Vardhana Rao told PTI on the sidelines of an Assocham event on food fortification.
FSSAI is a statutory body under the administration of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
The move comes in response to concerns over the alleged high sugar content in Nestlé’s baby food products, raised by both the Ministry of Consumer Affairs and the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), after learning of a global report published by the Swiss NGO Public Eye.
The global report claims that Nestle sold baby products with higher sugar content in less developed South Asian countries, including India, Africa and Latin American countries, compared to markets in Europe.
However, Nestle India has maintained that it never compromises on compliance and has reduced added sugars in baby food products in India by as much as 30 percent in the last five years, depending on the variants.
Earlier, the CEO of FSSAI, in his address at the Assocham event, highlighted the importance of food fortification for human health and called for fortification beyond rice to include millets and other alternative foods.
FMCG companies have introduced varieties of millet-based products in recent years and they can further expand the basket of nutritious foods in the country, he added.
The CEO also unveiled an Assocham’s knowledge report ‘Fortifying India’s Future: Significance of Food Fortification and Nutrition’ on this occasion.
LT Foods Global Branded Business CEO Vivek Chandra, World Food Program Shariqua Yunus, Fortify Health CEO Tony Senanyake and Farm to Fork Solutions CEO Umesh Kamble also spoke about food fortification.
PTI
