Tukaram Mundhe has urged food and beverage companies to go beyond legal compliance and adopt consistent, ethical standards across markets, as scrutiny intensifies over differences in product formulations and front-of-pack health warnings.
Maharashtra Food Commissioner Tukaram Mundhe has called on food and beverage companies to adopt stronger ethical standards and reconsider the differing approaches they take to product formulations and nutrition labelling across countries.
Mundhe’s comments come after a Reuters report highlighted differences in the recipes and nutritional profiles of popular food and beverage products sold in India and overseas, fuelling renewed debate among consumers, health experts and policymakers over whether multinational companies apply lower nutritional standards in markets such as India.
One example cited in the report was Fanta. A can of the beverage sold in London contains about 63 calories, while a similarly sized product in India contains significantly more sugar and around 185 calories.
“Companies should not only abide with legal compliances but also practice ethical behaviour,” Mundhe told Reuters. “Why the different standard?” He added that food companies have a responsibility towards society that extends beyond meeting minimum regulatory requirements.
The comments mark one of the first responses from an Indian government food-safety official following the Reuters findings.
Mundhe has emerged as one of India’s most prominent state-level food safety officials through an aggressive enforcement campaign in Maharashtra. His teams have conducted inspections and raids at both large and small food establishments, including major restaurant chains, with some operations facing action over hygiene violations.
The Front-Of-Pack Labelling Battle
The debate over product composition comes as India’s proposed front-of-pack warning labels face continued resistance and regulatory delays.
Reuters reported that companies including Coca-Cola, along with industry groups representing Nestle, PepsiCo and other food and beverage manufacturers, had lobbied against India’s proposed warning-label framework. Similar warning systems have been voluntarily adopted by some companies in European markets.
Mundhe has publicly challenged arguments against front-of-pack warnings. Sharing the Reuters report on LinkedIn, he wrote that warning labels “don’t insult consumer intelligence, they respect it.”
He also rejected the argument that consumers already receive sufficient guidance from doctors.
“The argument that doctors already advise patients misses the point: prevention should not depend on already being sick,” he wrote.
The issue has also drawn scrutiny from India’s Supreme Court, which has criticised delays in implementing front-of-pack nutrition labelling and called for urgent action.
Meanwhile, Nestle global CEO has said the company wants India to consult manufacturers while developing front-of-pack health-labelling rules, arguing that the framework should be based on scientific principles.
For India’s food industry, the debate is increasingly moving beyond regulatory compliance. Differences in formulations, sugar levels and labelling practices are putting the spotlight on how global food companies balance local consumer preferences and regulations with broader expectations around public health.
With India’s packaged food and beverage market now worth more than $100 billion, the regulatory debate could have significant implications for manufacturers, retailers and consumers alike.