In a significant development, the Bombay High Court has stayed an advisory issued by the Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to packaged food & beverage companies on ingredient disclosures.
The stay was granted on Friday (31 January) following a writ petition filed by the Indian Drug Manufacturers Association, a body comprising pharmaceutical as well as health product manufacturers, who felt the product approval advisory issued in May 2013 by the country's apex food safety regulator would mire them in unnecessary red tape.
The product approval advisory makes it mandatory for packaged food, beverage, health drink and supplement makers to disclose any ingredient or formulation change to FSSAI.
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IDMA, whose members include all the top drug and health product makers in India including Ranbaxy, Cadila, Jubilant Organosys etc, argued in court that the advisory issued by FSSAI was beyond the scope of law, since it had not been sanctioned by parliament, said the body's lawyer Rajeev Talasikar.
The stay is expected to give some relief to health product makers, who were uncomfortable with the advisory issued eight months ago.
Allied bodies such as the All India Food Processors' Association (AIFPA), whose members include top food & beverage companies such as Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestle, Britannia and Hindustan Unilever, are believed to be tracking the development closely, since the advisory also affects them.
M. A Tejani, president, AIFPA, said that his body had not challenged FSSAI's advisory in court yet. "That is something that we would use as the last resort," Tejani said. "At the moment, we prefer to be in dialogue with FSSAI to resolve this matter," he said.
While the amount of time required to get product approvals in India is more or less in line with markets in the US, UK and Europe, the procedure varies. In short, it is simpler to apply and get approvals abroad in comparison to India.
Typically, product approvals internationally are restricted to a single window, say food manufactures, with multiple approvals coming into play only when ingredients used are uncommon or haven't been tested.
Food manufacturers in India are also asking the FSSAI to follow a similar model, where commonly used ingredients are part of a food code to prevent red tape. Only uncommon ingredients, they say, should be put through multiple product approvals.