Even as India’s long-delayed front-of-pack nutrition labelling framework remains stuck in regulatory limbo, Hyderabad-based product intelligence startup Natfirst is emerging as a parallel force in food transparency, backed by a rare endorsement from a key government health body.
Founded in 2023, Natfirst has been working to bridge a gap that regulators and public health institutions have struggled with for over a decade — giving consumers clear, usable information about what goes into packaged foods. Its flagship product, the TruthIn app, along with the proprietary TruthIn Rating System (TIRS), was launched in July 2023 to help consumers assess the nutritional quality of packaged foods through simple scores, ingredient disclosures and warnings.
Earlier this month, the app and its rating methodology were recognised by the Indian Council of Medical Research–National Institute of Nutrition (ICMR-NIN) at a first-of-its-kind government event that invited startups to showcase technology-led solutions for improving India’s health and nutrition outcomes. The recognition marks a notable shift in how public health authorities view startup-driven tools as complements to traditional regulation.
The acknowledgment came at the INFUSE Summit in Hyderabad, where AI-enabled innovations addressing nutrition and health challenges were showcased. TruthIn stood out for offering composite health scores based on Indian recommended dietary allowances and scientific benchmarks. Users can scan barcodes, search a growing database of packaged foods, filter products by dietary preferences and contribute to a crowdsourced repository of food data.
Natfirst was founded by Ravi Teja Putrevu, Dr Aman Basheer Sheikh and Raghav Putrevu, and has grown rapidly since inception. What began as a personal health initiative has expanded into a platform that has recorded millions of scans and hundreds of thousands of users, reflecting growing consumer demand for food label clarity.
The timing of the ICMR-NIN endorsement is significant. Since 2014, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has attempted — and repeatedly failed — to implement an effective front-of-pack nutrition labelling (FOPNL) system that warns consumers upfront about unhealthy foods. In 2022, FSSAI released draft regulations proposing a health star rating system, but the framework drew criticism from public health experts and industry alike.
Following public interest petitions and Supreme Court directives earlier this year, FOPNL was expected to be rolled out by July 2025. However, by mid-December, the system has yet to be implemented. A report by the Rajya Sabha committee on FSSAI’s Food Safety and Standards (Labelling & Display) Amendment Regulations is expected to be tabled in Parliament later this month.
One key stumbling block has been the debate over how foods should be ranked. Critics argue that health star ratings, calculated per 100 grams, allow ultra-processed foods to score deceptively well despite high levels of additives, sugar or processing. After industry objections, the regulator paused implementation.
Natfirst’s TruthIn Rating System attempts to address this gap. Instead of relying solely on nutrient mathematics, TIRS places a strong emphasis on ingredient transparency, flagging harmful additives, processing levels and misleading claims through clear labels and warnings.
While regulators continue to debate frameworks, resistance from food companies remains strong.
“The relationship of FSSAI with the food industry is long and quite cosy,” said Arun Gupta, managing director and convener of Nutrition Advocacy for Public Interest (NAPi) and a former member of the Prime Minister’s Council on India’s Nutrition Challenges.
Against this backdrop, the ICMR-NIN recognition offers Natfirst a crucial stamp of credibility — and signals a possible new phase of public–private collaboration, where early-stage technology startups are brought in to support national nutrition goals at a time when existing systems are struggling to keep pace.