Supreme Court gives Centre two weeks to decide on food warning labels

The Supreme Court has directed the Union government to decide within two weeks on the visual appearance of front-of-package labelling (FOPL) on pre-packaged food products. A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran told the government that India should not remain an underdeveloped country by refusing to match international standards on food labelling.

Hearing a PIL by public charitable trust '3S and Our Health Society', the court slammed the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India for delays in introducing warning labels. It pointed out that obesity has been recognised as a public health challenge in India. The court said FOPL is necessary to create awareness, especially among children getting addicted to junk food.

The bench referred to practices in Chile, Israel and Canada and said it did not approve the government's stance that matching international standards was not possible. The court warned it would pass further directions if the government failed to act. The matter has been listed for further hearing on September 10.