FSSAI's proposed red hexagon label will flag packaged foods exceeding ICMR-NIN thresholds for added sugar, fat, or salt. Brands get one year to comply after the regulation is notified.
A red hexagon printed on the top-left corner of a food pack is what FSSAI has proposed as India's front-of-pack nutrition warning label, modelled closely on Canada's FoPL format and grounded in threshold values recommended by the Indian Council of Medical Research's National Institute of Nutrition (ICMR-NIN).
On September 24, 2026, FSSAI filed a 20-page compliance affidavit before the Supreme Court of India, responding to the court's September 10 directive asking the regulator to provide a "reasonable, scientifically justified and clearly defined timeline" for implementing front-of-pack warning labels. The court had called food safety a matter of "national interest." FSSAI told the court it needs approximately four months to complete the regulatory drafting process before a notification can be issued. Once notified, Food Business Operators (FBOs) will have 365 days to update packaging, a window FSSAI says is needed to prevent "commercial hardships" for companies that have already printed packaging material in bulk.
What changed
The shift from FSSAI's earlier multi-phase proposal to a single-phase implementation is the most significant procedural change. Previously, the regulator had floated a staged rollout; the affidavit now commits to one uniform deadline for all covered products.
The label itself has three parts: a white square background, a red hexagon inside it, and the name of the nutrient or nutrients of concern printed within the hexagon. If a product exceeds the threshold for only one nutrient, that nutrient is named inside the hexagon. If multiple nutrients breach their thresholds, all are listed within the same single hexagon rather than using separate symbols for each. FSSAI explicitly rejected separate pictorial symbols per nutrient, arguing they risk confusion when multiple nutrients are involved.
The thresholds FSSAI has adopted from ICMR-NIN are specific:
- For solid foods, added sugar above 2 g per 100 g, added fat above 4.2 g per 100 g, and salt above 625 mg per 100 g trigger the warning.
- For liquid foods and beverages, added sugar above 2 g per 100 ml and salt above 175 mg per 100 ml trigger the warning.
- Sugar thresholds are calculated at 5% energy from added sugar (not exceeding 10% from total sugar) for solids, and 10% energy from added sugar (not exceeding 30% from total sugar, including naturally present sugars in fruit juices and milk) for liquids.
- Fat thresholds are set at 15% energy from added fat, not exceeding 30% from total fat, for both solids and liquids.
One detail worth noting: the regulation targets added sugar and added fat, not naturally occurring versions. FSSAI's affidavit acknowledges that naturally occurring sugars in whole fruits and dairy come with fibre, vitamins, and minerals that affect how the body processes them. A plain glass of packaged cow's milk would not automatically attract a sugar warning because of its lactose content, but a flavoured milk drink with added sucrose could, depending on total levels.
For beverages, FSSAI is creating a separate category for sugar-sweetened drinks, with the intent of nudging consumers to treat them as occasional rather than daily choices.
The label placement rule is clear: top-left of the front of the pack, in a font size at least one point larger than the nutrition information table on the back. Size follows the Canada model.
FSSAI also proposed moving the existing "CONTAINS NON CALORIC SWEETENER" warning from the back of the pack to the front, which would be an amendment to the Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2020. This matters for anyone avoiding aspartame, sucralose, acesulfame-K, or stevia-based sweeteners in packaged drinks and snacks, since back-of-pack text is routinely missed at the point of purchase.
What buyers and cooks should do
The regulation is not yet in force. FSSAI still needs to publish a draft, run the statutory comment period, and issue a final notification. That process is estimated to take around four months from late September 2026, putting a likely notification somewhere around early 2027 and a compliance deadline roughly a year after that. Brands are not legally required to carry the red hexagon yet.
That said, the thresholds are now public, and you can apply them yourself today. Check the nutrition label on any packaged snack, biscuit, breakfast cereal, or bottled drink:
- More than 2 g of added sugar per 100 ml in a beverage? It would attract the warning under the proposed rules.
- More than 625 mg of salt per 100 g in chips or namkeen? Same result.
- More than 4.2 g of added fat per 100 g? The hexagon would apply.
For clean-label shoppers, the practical upshot is that many products currently marketed with words like "natural," "wholesome," or "nutritious" will carry a red hexagon once the regulation kicks in, because marketing language and nutrient composition are separate things. A "multigrain" biscuit with 18 g of fat per 100 g and 400 mg of sodium is not exempt because it contains oats.
For home cooks and restaurant buyers, the beverage threshold is the one to watch. Freshly prepared lemon juice sold in a packaged format with added sugar above 2 g per 100 ml would attract the warning under the proposed rules, regardless of whether it is cold-pressed or artisanal. The regulation applies to the nutrient level, not the production method.
Brands that genuinely use no added sugar, keep sodium low through herbs and spices rather than salt, and rely on whole-food fats rather than refined oils are the ones that will come through this regulation without a red hexagon. Until the notification is issued and FSSAI releases the full schedule of covered product categories, the safest approach is to read the nutrition facts panel directly and apply the ICMR-NIN thresholds yourself.