The Basics: FSSAI and Mandatory Marks
Every packaged food item sold in India must comply with the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). The first things to look for are the FSSAI license number and a few key symbols. The most familiar are the vegetarian and non-vegetarian
marks. A green dot inside a green square means the product is vegetarian. A brown triangle inside a brown square indicates it is non-vegetarian. This symbol was updated from a brown dot to a triangle to help those with colour blindness distinguish it more easily. A new vegan symbol has also been introduced for products that contain no animal-derived ingredients at all, including milk or honey.
Decoding the Nutrition Facts Panel
This is the small table on the back of the pack. The key is to always use the ‘per 100g’ column for comparison, not the ‘per serving’ column. A company can make a serving size deceptively small to make the numbers look better. Focus on a few key lines: total fat (especially saturated fat), total sugar, sodium (salt), and protein. As a general rule for sugar, below 5g per 100g is low, while above 22g per 100g is high. For salt, which is about 2.5 times the sodium figure, anything above 1.5g per 100g is considered high.
The Ingredient List: What's Really Inside?
Ingredients are always listed in descending order by weight. The first three ingredients make up the bulk of the product. If sugar (or its many aliases), refined flour (maida), or palm oil are at the top of the list, you know what the product is primarily made of. Sugar is often disguised under names like maltodextrin, dextrose, liquid glucose, corn syrup, or invert syrup. If you see several of these on one list, it's a red flag that the manufacturer has split the sugar content to avoid it appearing as the main ingredient.
Health Claims vs. Reality
The front of the pack is marketing. Claims like “Baked, not fried,” “Low-fat,” or “All-natural” can be misleading. A “low-fat” product might be packed with sugar to improve the taste. A “baked” snack can still be high in sodium and refined carbohydrates. “Multigrain” simply means more than one type of grain is used; it doesn’t say how much. Always turn the package over and check the nutrition panel and ingredient list to verify these claims.
The New Front-of-Pack Warnings
To make things simpler, FSSAI is introducing mandatory front-of-pack warning labels. Instead of a star-rating system that was previously discussed, the new regulation will require a red hexagonal symbol for products high in salt, sugar, or fat. This warning will be triggered even if just one of these nutrients crosses the prescribed threshold. The label, placed on the top left of the package, will explicitly state “HIGH SUGAR,” “HIGH SALT,” or “HIGH FAT” inside the red hexagon. The Supreme Court has been pushing for a speedy implementation of these consumer-friendly warnings.
