Existing World Health Organisation guidelines ban added sugars in baby food products.
“The Fssai has taken cognisance of the matter and has sought an explanation from Nestle India,” said a senior official from the national foods sector regulator. The authority held a meeting of its officials on Thursday to evaluate the matter.
The India unit of Swiss multinational Nestle SA, in an email to ET, said it has reduced sugar by 30% in Cerelac over the past five years.
The company, which also sells the Maggi noodles, Kitkat chocolates and Nescafe coffee, said in a statement that its products were manufactured in the country “in full compliance” with standards set under CODEX (a commission established by WHO and Food and Agriculture Organization) and local specifications pertaining to the requirements of nutrients including added sugars.
On Thursday, Nestle India’s shares fell as much as 5.4% during intraday trade, the worst in over three years, before closing 3.3% down at Rs 2,462.75 on the BSE.Milk products and the nutrition category contribute about 40% of domestic sales of the packaged foods maker.Cerelac has been found to contain an average of nearly 3 gm of sugar per serving in India, according to the report. The study also found added sugars in many other low-and-middle income countries as well, but not in developed markets like the UK, Germany, Switzerland and some other European countries.
India’s laws are two-fold for baby foods, one covering ingredients and the other about marketing. While they strictly prohibit companies from marketing and promotion of infant foods, the policy is not so clear about the ingredients, said experts.
According to the Food Safety and Standards (Foods for Infant Nutrition) Regulations, 2019, “Sucrose and/or fructose shall not be added, unless needed as a carbohydrate source, and provided the sum of these does not exceed 20% of total carbohydrates.”
The second clause of the law (“unless needed as a carbohydrate source, and provided the sum of these does not exceed 20% of total carbohydrates”) has a loophole and allows for adding sugar, said Arun Gupta, convenor of Nutrition Advocacy in Public Interest, an advocacy group. Sugar is addictive because of which children consume such products, he added.
“The law prohibiting marketing and promotion of baby food is robust and one of the best in the world,” Gupta said. However, the government is not enforcing it properly which has led to several bloggers and celebrities flouting them, he added.
Around 30,000 tonnes of baby food including powdered milk for children up to 3 years of age is sold in India, according to estimates.
Nestle said in its statement: “We regularly review our portfolio and continue to innovate and reformulate our products to further reduce the level of added sugars without compromising on quality, safety and taste.”
According to a statement on Public Eye’s website, around 150 products sold by Nestle in lower-income countries were examined at a Belgian laboratory and the findings in the report are based on this study.
