The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is going to give packaged foods a star rating system in the same way as the bureau of energy efficiency has for electronic appliances. As per the ‘Health Star’ rating system, packaged foods will display the number of stars on the front of the pack, indicating how healthy or unhealthy it is depending upon the amount of salt, sugar, and fat it has. A health star rating was one of five types of labels that were considered, including traffic light signs, a nutrition score and warning symbols. It will be rolled out in the next few months.
FSSAI is bringing in the regulation based on a report from the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad. The regulator had hired the institute last year to conduct a study on the impact of front-of-the-pack labelling for packaged and processed foods in India. “The study has recommended the star rating system based on consumers’ ease of understanding,” FSSAI chief executive Arun Singhal said.