ICMR-NIN says FSSAI's draft red warning label rule has a loophole: products dangerously high in just one nutrient (sugar, fat, or salt) can legally avoid any warning under the current Phase-I criteria.
The ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition (ICMR-NIN), based in Hyderabad, has formally challenged the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India's (FSSAI) proposed red hexagonal warning label system, arguing that the draft criteria allow ultra-processed foods high in a single harmful nutrient to reach consumers without any front-of-pack alert.
FSSAI's proposal, benchmarked against the Dietary Guidelines for Indians (DGI) 2024, would require packaged food manufacturers to print prominent red hexagonal marks reading 'HIGH FAT', 'HIGH SUGAR', or 'HIGH SALT' on products that exceed specific nutrient thresholds. The objection from ICMR-NIN Director Dr Bharati Kulkarni, reported by Telangana Today on 13 September 2026, targets the Phase-I rollout condition: a warning label is mandatory only when a product breaches thresholds in two or more nutrients simultaneously.
What changed, and why the gap matters
The two-nutrient trigger is not a minor technical detail. A biscuit with extreme sodium levels but moderate fat and sugar would pass through Phase-I without a single warning mark on its pack. A flavoured drink loaded with free sugars but within fat limits would do the same. ICMR-NIN's position is that this structure defeats the purpose of the label entirely.
The institute's objection goes further than just the trigger count. NIN points out that the DGI 2024 limits on sugar, fat, and salt were designed to work alongside total calorie intake, not as standalone numbers. Judging each nutrient in isolation, without anchoring it to the product's overall energy density, can make a calorie-dense product look acceptable on any single nutrient metric even when its overall nutritional profile is poor. FSSAI has not yet released a revised schedule that addresses this calorie-context concern, so the full scope of any amendment remains unclear.
India's packaged food market has expanded sharply over the past decade, and lifestyle diseases including type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular conditions are rising across age groups. The ICMR-NIN's own dietary guidelines flag ultra-processed foods as a primary dietary risk. A warning label system that misses a significant share of those products because of a multi-nutrient trigger condition is, by NIN's reading, not fit for purpose.
Chile, Peru, and Mexico have each implemented front-of-pack warning systems with single-nutrient triggers, and peer-reviewed evaluations of Chile's 2016 food labelling law found measurable reductions in purchases of labelled products within two years of implementation. India's proposed system draws on that international experience, but the Phase-I condition pulls it back from the stricter single-nutrient standard those countries adopted.
FSSAI has not publicly responded to ICMR-NIN's objections as of 14 September 2026. The regulator's consultation period for the draft labelling rules is ongoing, and the final notification schedule has not been confirmed.
What buyers and home cooks should do now
Until FSSAI finalises and enforces the red label rules, the front of any packaged food pack tells you very little about its actual nutrient load. The nutrition information panel (NIP) on the back or side of the pack is the only mandatory disclosure that currently carries regulatory weight under FSSAI's Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations 2020.
When reading the NIP, check values per 100 g or 100 ml rather than per serving. Manufacturers set their own serving sizes, and a 'serving' of chips or a flavoured drink is often far smaller than what a person actually consumes in one sitting. For sodium, the DGI 2024 recommends no more than 2,000 mg per day for an adult. A single 30 g portion of many salted snacks can carry 300 to 500 mg. For total sugars, the World Health Organization recommends staying below 10 percent of total energy intake, which works out to roughly 50 g per day on a 2,000-calorie diet.
For products marketed as 'natural', 'multigrain', or 'baked not fried', treat those claims as marketing copy until you have checked the NIP. FSSAI's current labelling rules do not define 'natural' with any precision, so the word carries no regulatory guarantee about sugar, fat, or salt content.
Parents buying packaged snacks for children face a specific gap: the proposed FSSAI thresholds are calibrated for adult dietary reference values. NIN's DGI 2024 sets lower absolute limits for children, so a product that would not trigger even a single-nutrient warning for an adult may still be inappropriate for a child's diet. Until child-specific thresholds appear in any final FSSAI notification, the safest approach is to check the NIP against age-appropriate daily intake figures from a paediatrician or registered dietitian.
Home cooks looking to reduce sodium can replace processed condiments with fresh aromatics. Garlic, ginger, green chillies, and tamarind add depth without the sodium load of packaged sauces, many of which carry 800 to 1,200 mg of sodium per 100 g. For sweetness in baked goods, whole fruit purees add fibre alongside natural sugars, which slows absorption compared to refined sugar or glucose-fructose syrups listed on many packaged product labels.
The NIN-FSSAI disagreement is a live regulatory dispute. Watch for FSSAI's formal response to the consultation submissions, and for any gazette notification that revises the Phase-I trigger condition. That notification, when it appears, will be the document that actually determines what warning labels Indian consumers see on shelves.