India’s food safety regulator has abandoned plans to introduce colour-coded nutritional warnings on the front of packaged food products after sustained resistance from major food and beverage companies. The move highlights ongoing tensions between public health advocates pushing for greater transparency and industry groups concerned about the impact of such labels on consumer behavior and business interests.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) confirmed in August that it would not implement the proposed front-of-pack colour-coded warnings, which aimed to indicate levels of sugar, fat, and salt in products through easily recognizable symbols. Instead, the regulator has recommended that companies continue providing nutritional information in a black-and-white tabular format on packaging.

The proposal had been under consideration since 2017, with the goal of addressing India’s growing obesity problem. A recent study published in the journal Lancet projects that nearly 450 million Indians could be overweight or obese by 2050. Advocates argue that interpretive labels, as adopted in around 20 countries globally, are effective in promoting healthier choices by providing clear visual cues on high sugar, fat, or salt content.

However, industry representatives have actively pushed back. In a March meeting with regulators, executives from Coca-Cola and other multinational companies argued that warning labels could be confusing to consumers and ineffective in changing eating habits. Milil Bhattacharya, senior executive at Coca-Cola India, said it was overly simplistic to expect that an icon on a package could significantly influence dietary decisions, and emphasized the role of doctors in educating patients about nutrition. Coca-Cola and Nestlé, both of which have applied traffic-light or interpretive labels voluntarily in several international markets, declined to comment on the Indian regulatory process.

Industry lobby groups, including the Indian Food and Beverage Association (IFBA), have expressed concerns that certain warning label proposals may misclassify products, such as naturally sweetened coconut water, as unhealthy. The IFBA also called for clearer guidelines from regulators, reflecting the complexity of Indian cuisine and consumer preferences.

The regulatory shift has drawn criticism from health experts and activists. Simone Pettigrew, head of food policy at the George Institute for Global Health in Australia, noted that prolonged lobbying had effectively stalled progress on stronger food labelling policies in India, delaying public access to critical health information. Public interest groups have petitioned the Supreme Court of India to compel the FSSAI to revisit the issue, following the court’s directive earlier this year to consider adopting warning systems similar to Israel’s red-and-green labelling scheme. The court has since rebuked the regulator for retreating from international standards and urged greater commitment to public health concerns.

India’s packaged food market, valued at over US$100 billion, comprises products with high levels of fat, sugar, and salt in around 80 percent of offerings, according to industry estimates. As consumer awareness rises alongside economic growth, there has been increasing demand for clearer nutritional transparency. Social media influencers like Revant Himatsingka, known as Food Pharmer, have built large followings by scrutinizing ingredient lists and marketing practices, sparking legal pushback from companies including PepsiCo.

Beyond labelling, differences in product formulations have stirred consumer frustration. Many multinational brands offer variants with higher sugar content or additives in the Indian market compared to versions sold in Europe or Australia. For example, KitKat chocolate sold in India contains significantly less cocoa than its Australian counterpart, and popular Maggi noodles in India contain palm oil, whereas sunflower oil is used in some UK products.

Despite industry resistance, some companies have begun adjusting product lines. Nestlé recently announced plans to introduce a sugar-free version of its Cerelac baby food in India after years of pressure from activists.

The ongoing debate underscores the challenges India faces in balancing public health objectives, consumer preferences, and the interests of powerful multinational producers amid rising concerns about diet-related diseases. The Supreme Court’s pending review of the FSSAI’s regulatory approach could prove pivotal in shaping the country’s food labelling policies going forward.