Public health activists have accused the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) of deliberately stalling the long-pending Front-of-Pack Nutrition Labelling (FOPNL) regulations. This comes after the food regulator approached the Supreme Court last week seeking an extension of three months to finalise its expert committee report, despite the Court’s directive in April mandating completion within three months.
The Supreme Court’s April 9 order had followed years of delay by the FSSAI, which has failed to finalise the regulations nearly three years after they were first put out for public consultation in September 2022. The FOPNL initiative was originally proposed back in 2014 by an expert panel constituted at the direction of the Delhi High Court, in response to a public interest petition that also called for a junk food ban in schools. Eleven years on, the regulation remains elusive.
In its recent application, the FSSAI claimed it held regional consultations with food business operators and other stakeholders in Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad, and Kolkata during May 2025. These sessions, it said, yielded “essential feedback” that needed to be reviewed by the expert committee before finalizing the draft regulations.
However, nutrition advocacy group Nutrition Advocacy in Public Interest (NAPi) has questioned the legitimacy of these additional consultations. “Why begin a new round of consultations when 14,000 comments were already submitted after the draft was published in 2022?” asked NAPi in a statement. The group argued that FSSAI’s actions appear to be buying time to shield the food industry from stricter regulation, noting that the industry has enjoyed nearly three years without any mandatory front-of-pack warnings.
The FSSAI’s refusal to make public the 14,000 comments it received, citing “commercial confidence,” has also sparked criticism. Activists say this indicates that the food industry’s concerns have already been heard and factored into the process. They also questioned why the expert committee’s draft report—reportedly ready even before the Supreme Court’s April order—is not being disclosed to the public.
Globally, FOPNL is recognized as a key policy tool to help consumers make healthier food choices and reduce the intake of ultra-processed products high in sugar, salt, and fat. Countries in Latin America, Europe, and parts of Asia have already adopted some form of mandatory front-of-pack warning systems. Yet, in India, resistance from the food industry—concerned about potential impacts on sales—has slowed progress, despite rising rates of lifestyle diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers.
Even if the expert committee’s recommendations are submitted soon, the FSSAI has indicated that several stages of review and regulatory processing remain, potentially pushing implementation back by several more months.
With over a decade of delay and growing frustration among public health experts, the issue is fast becoming a litmus test of whether consumer rights and health will take precedence over commercial interests in India’s food policy landscape.