Join WhatsApp Channel
India could be headed for its biggest overhaul of food labelling and infant nutrition regulations in years after a Parliamentary Standing Committee urged the government to tighten oversight of sugar content in baby foods, strengthen front-of-pack disclosures, improve surveillance and prepare for a regulatory framework that keeps pace with emerging scientific evidence.
The recommendations, contained in the Fifteenth Report of the Standing Committee on Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, come as India grapples with rising childhood obesity, increasing consumption of ultra-processed foods and growing evidence linking excessive sugar intake during infancy with lifelong health complications.
The 118-page report goes beyond infant nutrition, presenting a roadmap for a future regulatory regime that places greater emphasis on consumer awareness, digital transparency, coordinated enforcement and evidence-based policymaking.
The committee warned that dietary habits established during the first two years of life significantly influence long-term health outcomes. Drawing on research presented by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), it noted that excessive sugar intake during infancy has been associated with obesity, insulin resistance, type-2 diabetes, hypertension, dental caries, metabolic dysfunction and alterations in gut microbiota later in life.
The report also highlights global dietary benchmarks. The World Health Organization recommends reducing free sugar intake to less than 10% of total daily energy intake, while suggesting a further reduction below 5% for additional health benefits. India’s ICMR Dietary Guidelines, meanwhile, recommend limiting added sugar consumption to 25 grams per day, noting that added sugar contributes calories but no essential nutrients.
At the center of the debate is India’s regulatory architecture for infant foods.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) informed the committee that under the Food Safety and Standards (Foods for Infant Nutrition) Regulations, 2020, lactose and glucose polymers remain the preferred carbohydrate sources in infant nutrition. Sucrose and fructose may be used only where necessary and together cannot exceed 20% of total carbohydrate content, a standard that FSSAI said is aligned with Codex Alimentarius and European Union regulations.
Responding to questions on whether India should adopt stricter WHO thresholds, FSSAI argued that the existing ceiling effectively corresponds to about 10% of total energy requirements for infants and therefore remains consistent with international scientific recommendations. The regulator added that its scientific panels continuously review emerging evidence and can revise standards when warranted.
The report reveals that India already has an extensive legal ecosystem governing packaged foods, including the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, the Infant Milk Substitutes Act, the Legal Metrology Act, 2009, and the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, with responsibilities shared among the Ministries of Health, Consumer Affairs, and Women and Child Development.
However, the committee suggests the next phase of regulation should move beyond statutory limits to improving how nutritional information is communicated.
Current regulations require manufacturers to disclose both total sugars and added sugars on food labels. FSSAI has also proposed amendments requiring added sugar, sodium and saturated fat declarations to appear in bold lettering and larger font sizes, making nutritional information more visible to consumers at the point of purchase.
The panel also examined international models such as front-of-pack nutrition labels, grading systems and warning labels that allow consumers to identify high-sugar products at a glance. Although India has not adopted mandatory color-coded or interpretative warning labels, the committee’s review indicates that such approaches are increasingly becoming part of the global regulatory conversation.
Another major theme running through the report is digital commerce.
Officials informed the committee that e-commerce platforms are legally required to ensure product descriptions accurately reflect the nutritional and other characteristics of food products. The report also notes that enforcement agencies now rely on market surveillance, random inspections, legal metrology checks, product seizures, financial penalties and action against misleading advertisements under consumer protection laws.
The committee also reviewed India’s progress in aligning domestic regulations with international standards. Besides harmonizing infant food regulations with Codex and European norms, the Department of Consumer Affairs highlighted initiatives including standardized packaging declarations, QR-code based digital labelling, simplified compliance norms and greater participation in global regulatory forums.
Looking ahead, the report signals that India’s food regulation strategy is likely to evolve from compliance-based oversight toward risk-based consumer protection.
The committee advocates stronger inter-agency coordination, continuous scientific review, improved monitoring of packaged foods, enhanced consumer education, better enforcement against misleading health claims and more transparent nutritional disclosures. Collectively, these recommendations point toward a regulatory environment in which sugar content will receive scrutiny similar to trans fats over the past decade.
If implemented, the recommendations would reshape not only the baby food sector but also the broader packaged food industry, compelling manufacturers to place greater emphasis on product reformulation, transparent labelling and healthier nutritional profiles while giving consumers clearer information to make informed dietary choices. The report suggests that India’s next phase of food regulation will be driven as much by preventive public health objectives as by traditional food safety standards.
