FSSAI has now constituted an expert committee for advertising and claims regulations. The move follows after the notification of the Food Safety and Standards (Advertising and Claims) Regulations, 2018, on November 19, 2019. This regulation will now be implemented from July 1, 2019.
The new regulation now specifies the procedure for approval of claims and stipulates that the regulator itself, or through an agency or panel, can carry out the scrutiny of the application submitted by the food business operators (FBOs) or marketers for approval of their claims.
As per the regulation, from now on, the FBO or marketer needs to seek prior approval from FSSAI for the reduction of disease risk claims, other than those defined and for which the criteria are laid out under the regulations or any other rules made under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, 2006.
In view of this, the food regulator has formed an expert committee to carry out the task of scrutiny as per the Food Safety and Standards (Advertising and Claims) Regulations, 2018. The experts must scrutinise the claims on food products as and when brought to the notice of the panel.
The five-member committee includes Dr Prema Ramachandran, director, Nutrition Foundation of India, New Delhi; Dr K Madhavan Nair, retired scientist, National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), Hyderabad (who is now a member of the scientific panel on labelling, claims and advertisements); Anuja Agarwal, dietician, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), and member, scientific panel on labelling, claims and advertisements, and Dr D B A Narayana, expert member, Indian Pharmacopeia Commission, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), and member of the expert committee to examine the approval of non-specified food and food ingredients. The fifth, according to FSSAI, will be a special invitee from the vertical panel, whose assistance and guidance will be sought as and when required.
The food regulatory authority’s note stated that the expert team would need to work through both electronic and physical means. The regulatory authority, will from time to time, issue a further direction to the business of the expert committee.
