Label-playing field welcome in F&B

The country's food regulator has sought extra emphasis in labelling packaged food about sugar, salt and fat content. This is a smaller ask than an earlier plan to have visual interpretation of healthy and unhealthy food on packaging. It even undershoots a proposal to have the sugar-salt-fat declaration on the front of the pack. Critics argue the measure will serve little information purpose if it allows companies to cloud the message through recommended dietary allowance. Food companies are, however, lowering sugar and salt content in food and drinks - and are reporting healthier bottom lines in the process. The Indian consumer may actually be ahead of the food labelling authority over healthy eating and drinking.

The declining incidence of poverty allows a larger section of the population to secure its energy needs from unprocessed foods. Processed food companies see the business logic in offering more than an instant energy pick-me-up to consumers. This aligns their ingredient mix closer to international norms despite Indian rules that are yet to catch up. Food companies can now take the healthy consumption game to a higher level by raising awareness through labelling. Some of them are doing that, alongside reductions in ingredients that are known to cause non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. The new food labelling rules are a step towards getting the rest of them to fall in line.

Awareness alone won't swing it, until the link between heath and profits is better established. Since the big players, with international presence, are pushing the envelope, the processed food industry as a whole will have to change course. The size of the Indian market doesn't permit indefinite regulatory arbitrage. The incentive for self-regulation is gaining momentum, which allows GoI to go easy on intervention. Critics of the watered-down labelling rules are being too harsh, given the penetration of packaged food in the country. They are correct in seeking progressively tighter rules as consumption rises.