The Supreme Court directed an expert committee to give its recommendations to enable the Centre to amend food safety regulations to deal with warning labels on packaged foods.
A bench comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan was hearing a PIL of public charitable trust 3S and Our Health Society, filed through lawyer Rajiv Shankar Dvivedi seeking directions to the Centre, states and union territories to implement mandatory front-of-package warning labels (FOPL) on packaged foods.
The plea said it would enable citizens to take informed decisions on food consumption.
During the hearing, the bench observed that children are more interested in knowing what’s inside the ‘Kurkure’ packet, than what is on it. “You have grandchildren. Allow them to decide this petition, then you will get to know what’s Kurkure. They don’t see any content, they just see what’s in the packet,” Justice J.B. Pardiwala observed orally.
The bench said that an expert committee should be constituted by the Centre. The bench said this committee should prepare a list of recommendations, and submit a report within three months. The bench said on the basis of recommendations necessary amendments could be taken up.
The bench examined the reply filed by the Centre and the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) of proposing an amendment in the regulations on the same issue.
The bench was informed that the Centre has received around 14,000 objections and suggestions from the public and they constituted an expert committee to examine them and recommend changes in the Food and Safety Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2020.
After hearing submissions, the bench said, “We dispose of this writ petition with the direction to the expert committee to give its recommendations expeditiously within three months….”.
The plea has cited the country’s growing burden of non-communicable diseases and claimed the FOPL would highlight the presence of high levels of sugar, salt, and saturated fats—key contributors to serious health issues such as diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular diseases, and certain cancers.
According to the health experts’ and the petitioner, the root cause was the widespread availability and aggressive marketing of ultra-processed foods high in sugar, salt, and unhealthy fats.
