Food Safety and Standards Authority of India’s (FSSAI) Chief Executive Officer G Kamala Vardhana Rao on Thursday directed food manufacturers to present actual product compositional facts and abstain from using false labelling claims, which are against the FSSAI regulations.
Speaking at the ‘FBO Food Supplements & Nutraceutical Stakeholder Meeting’ in Hyderabad, which was attended by more than 100 Food Business Operators (FBOs), Mr Rao said that such claims will lead to cancellation of license and legal prosecutions.
Mr Rao urged FBOs and re-labellers to take part in mandated third party auditing for the nutraceutical industry in order to counter food fraud and counterfeit to ensure consumers’ access to safe food.
He said that the industry should provide specific warnings on the labels and that no health claims or therapeutic claims should be used in marketing in order to market the product as a food supplement.
The need of developing local manufacturing capacity for raw materials used in the nutraceutical industry was also highlighted to ensure proper monitoring and control. For this, Mr Rao asked manufacturers and other stakeholders to develop in-house capacity for testing and product development as a means of voluntary compliance and good manufacturing practices.
