The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is going to evaluate the new guideline issued last week by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which said that non-sugar sweeteners like aspartame and stevia do not help in weight loss and can increase risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.
FSSAI’s scientific panel will be examining and evaluating the WHO guideline in detail.
Non-sugar sweeteners are extensively used by large Indian brands of soft drinks, breakfast cereals, ice creams, and juices as “healthy” alternatives to sugar.
Big companies like Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Kellogg, and Dabur promote brands such as Coke Zero and Diet Coke, Pepsi Black, Special K, and the Chyawanprash variant Chyawanprakash, respectively, as “low-calorie products.
WHO’s guidelines in India could pointedly dent sales of such products, which connect aerated drinks, ice creams, cookies, chyawanprash, and confectionery, besides artificial sweeteners such as Sugar-Free, which are sold as healthier alternatives to sugar in cooking.
“If the FSSAI makes any labelling change about mentioning warnings on products containing non-sugar sweeteners, it will definitely impact consumption of diet and no-sugar foods and drinks, as now consumers do read labels and contents regularly,” said RS Sodhi, president of the Indian Dairy Association, adviser to Reliance Retail, and former managing director of dairy brand Amul.
Health groups said the move is a “long-awaited one” and that educating consumers about the use of non-sugar sweeteners is crucial at a time when demand for such foods and beverages has been increasing amid increasing health consciousness.
Ashim Sanyal, chief operating officer of Consumer Voice, called on FSSAI to adopt the WHO recommendations and impose a “restrictive use only” formulation regulation on such products. “The myth has been busted about the benefits of artificial sweeteners, which are extensively used as a body fitness formula,” said the head of the consumer rights group.
Till now, the FSSAI has had no such restrictions on the use of sweeteners in India. The development comes as the regulator is proposing to implement front-of-pack labelling on all packaged foods for salt, sugar, and fat content. Diet and no-sugar drinks and foods have been growing in double digits in India amid a heavy marketing push by companies.
Zydus Wellness, which makes Sugar Free, had said in previous interviews that the artificial sweetener brand has grown in double digits, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, as consumers increasingly cut sugar use.
The WHO, which called the guideline “conditional”, said it’s part of a suite of existing and forthcoming guidelines on healthy diets. “Replacing free sugars with non-sugar sweeteners (NSS) does not help with weight control in the long term,” Francesco Branca, WHO director for nutrition and food safety, said in a detailed note released by the health organization on May 15. “People need to consider other ways to reduce free sugar intake, such as consuming food with naturally occurring sugars, like fruit, or unsweetened food and beverages.”
NSS are not essential dietary factors and have no nutritional value, he said. “People should reduce the sweetness of their diet altogether, starting early in life, to improve their health,” Branca said in the note, available on the WHO’s website. WHO said the recommendations are based on available evidence and include all synthetic and natural sweeteners such as aspartame, saccharin, sucralose, and stevia.