India Wanted Red Flags On Sugary Drinks, Chips. Food Giants Pushed Back

A can of Fanta sold in London has 63 calories. Buy the same brand in India, and it contains three times as much sugar. It also includes artificial dye, whose presence in food products in Europe requires a prominent health warning. 

In India, the colorant's presence is noted merely in small print on the back of the can. That suits some of the world's biggest companies, which have long resisted Indian efforts to mandate nutritional warnings on the front of packaged products.

Consumer giants like Coca-Cola, which makes Fanta, appear to have the advantage. India's food-safety regulator said in August that it had abandoned a push for colourful warnings on the front of food packaging. It said such warning labels don't account for how Indian cuisine has more intense flavours than Western food and instead proposed that companies display a black-and-white table of sugar, fat and salt content.

Supreme Court of India is scrutinising that decision after a petition by public health activists. At stake are the waistlines of the 450 million Indians who could be obese or overweight by 2050, according to a recent study published in the journal Lancet. 

Experts say more transparency in labelling can forge healthier eating habits. At their urging, roughly 20 nations have adopted interpretive labels - which may include highlighting high sugar levels in red and low fat content in green - on the front of packaged foods. 

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India buckled after a tense March meeting with industry executives, who argued that such warning labels were confusing and ineffective, according to recordings reviewed by Reuters. Executives also urged regulators to focus on encouraging portion control.

Details of the meeting are reported by Reuters for the first time. 

It is "very simplistic" to believe that a consumer who doesn't already read ingredient lists "will be so informed by seeing a symbol or an icon on the label" that their diet significantly improves, senior Coca-Cola India executive Mili Bhattacharya said at the March 19 meeting.

She added that warning labels were pointless because they would not prevent consumers from otherwise having sugary and salty foods. And they were unnecessary because Indian doctors had done a good job teaching their patients what food should be avoided.

Coca-Cola and its bottling partners, however, have voluntarily added traffic-light-style labels to their drinks in some two dozen European markets. Such labels provide "clear and transparent" information, Coca-Cola HBC, a Switzerland-based affiliate, says on its website. 

Nestle is a member of Indian lobbies that fought the regulator's erstwhile proposals. But the company has voluntarily used interpretive labels in Britain since 2013. 

Coca-Cola and Nestle declined to comment for this article.

For this report, Reuters reviewed the audio recordings, hundreds of pages of government and corporate documents, and interviewed 11 industry executives and health experts.

Several food companies have filed legal complaints against social-media influencers who have criticized how they market their products in India. 

The threat that warning labels pose to profits means the industry is incentivized "to hold out for as long as possible, not informing the Indian public about the healthiness of the foods that they're selling," said Simone Pettigrew, head of food policy at the George Institute for Global Health in Australia.

Lobbying by interest groups has "almost paralyzed" regulators from enacting tougher standards, said Pettigrew, who has researched front-of-pack labels in more than two dozen countries. 

The FSSAI declined to comment, citing ongoing court proceedings involving labeling policy.

MAKE INDIA HEALTHY (AGAIN)?

Nearly 80% of products made by India's over $100 billion packaged food and beverages market could be regarded as high in fat, sugar and salt, according to industry estimates. 

That means packaging would be awash in red if the industry adopted color-coded warning labels, Deepak Jolly of the Ind Food & Beverage Association said at the March meeting with regulators.

IFBA, which represents companies including PepsiCo, said in response to Reuters questions that it wants more clarity from regulators. Current proposals, it said, might lead to "high sugar" warning labels on coconut water packs that contain only natural sugar. 

Indian regulators since 2017 have floated proposals such as prominent color-coded warnings and star ratings that indicate a product's nutritional value. But producers are required only to list ingredients and basic nutritional information on the back of packaging. 

Health activists seeking greater transparency have petitioned the Supreme Court, which in February directed regulators to consider warning labels. It suggested that the agency examine Israel's system of red-and-green messaging.

After the March meeting with industry, however, the FSSAI backed off on interpretive labelling. It told the court in August that it was "difficult" to match international standards on packaging, echoing the industry position.

That earned it a rebuke from judges, who said "the world should know that India is very much concerned about the overall health of its citizens."

As India grows more affluent, middle-class consumers have also become more conscious of their health. Monthly sales of weight-loss drugs that reduce appetites have grown 400% since early 2025, according to market-research firm Pharmarack. 

On social media, activists and influencers are campaigning against processed and packaged food. 

Among them is Revant Himatsingka. The former McKinsey management consultant has built an audience of more than 5 million across YouTube and Instagram, where the 34-year-old goes by the name Food Pharmer. 

The videos have occasionally landed him in hot water. In 2023, Himatsingka made a clip that criticised the amount of sugar and artificial sweetener used in PepsiCo's Sting caffeine drink. The beverage, marketed as an energy drink, is popular with young people in India.

PepsiCo successfully sought a take-down order from a Delhi court. It argued that the claims made in the video were false and intended to instigate a campaign against the beverage.

Indian regulators in July ordered PepsiCo and other companies to drop the "energy drink" label in 90 days. 

PepsiCo did not respond to questions. 

TALE OF TWO RECIPES

Multinational food producers often make different versions of the same products to comply with local regulations, tastes and spending capacity. Mexican Coke, for instance, has achieved cult status due to its less-syrupy taste. 

"Pricing and affordability are one of the biggest reasons recipes differ so much across countries," said former Mondelez executive Parul Sharma. 

But in India, many consumers feel that they are being sold inferior products, said Himatsingka, who has made videos that unfavourably compare the ingredients in the Indian version of Fanta and Nestle's KitKat against those sold in Europe and Australia.

Indian standard KitKats have 4.5% cocoa solids, while the milk chocolate in the Australian version contains at least 22% cocoa. All variants of Nestle's Maggi instant noodles sold in India are made with palm oil, whereas many versions sold in Britain use pricier sunflower oil. Many of the Maggi packets sold in Britain are made in India, but they carry red front-of-pack labels warning of their high salt content. 

"It is the frustration of feeling cheated," Himatsingka said.

There are some signs that changing consumer tastes are forcing companies to evolve.

Nestle in 2024, for instance, announced it would start selling sugar-free Cerelac baby food in India. Activists, including Himatsingka, had complained that for 50 years, only the version that contained sugar was sold in the country.  

The company has long sold sugar-free Cerelac elsewhere.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)