Majority of Indian consumers prefer front-of-pack label than FSSAI’s star rating, survey finds

The study found that 77% of consumers prefer a front-of-the-pack red label on ultra-processed foods and believed it to be more effective than the FSSAI-proposed star rating system.

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New Delhi: As the new year begins, Indians want to eat healthier and make better food choices. A survey has found that the majority of consumers in the country are in favour of ultra-processed foods being identified with a Red label at the front of the pack.

The study, conducted by LocalCircles, revealed that seventy-seven per cent of consumers prefer a front-of-the-pack red label on ultra-processed foods and believed it to be more effective than the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) proposed star rating system.

Only 5 per cent of the 9,980 respondents indicated that they preferred the star rating system, while another 5 per cent said that there shouldn’t be any marking on such products at all. Additionally, 13 per cent of the respondents gave no clear response.

With e-commerce sites on the rise, groceries are only a tap away but one can only make choices based on a thumbnail-sized image without actually perusing through ingredient specifications.

The next question of the survey dealt with understanding whether e-commerce sites and apps which sell ultra-processed foods be required to identify these products with a red label as well.

The survey highlighted that eighty-six per cent of online consumers wanted ultra-processed foods with red-coloured labels/bars on e-commerce platforms as well. Only 2 per cent of respondents said there should only be a star rating system as there is in other packaged food products, while 7 per cent of respondents said that there should be no marking at all on these products and 5 per cent gave no clear response.

In September last year, the country’s food safety regulator proposed an ‘Indian Nutrition Rating’ for the Front of Package Labelling (FOPL) system. This would grade the packaged food’s entire nutritional profile and give it a score ranging from half a star to five stars. As of now, the FSSAI has requested feedback from medical professionals and consumer groups around issues with packaged food labelling.

Consumer study in other countries has shown that colour-coded labelling of packaged foods performs better than other labels in assisting customers in making an informed food choice about the packaged foods they intend to consume.

A recent study by the community social media platform focussed on ultra-processed foods to gauge whether identifying them with a red front on the pack label was something that consumers wanted. Moreover, this study also included e-commerce grocery platforms to assess whether they would like to see this specification highlighted online too.

With over 19,000 responses from 285 districts in India, 64 per cent of the respondents were men while 36 per cent respondents were women. 43 per cent of respondents belonged to tier 1 cities; 31 per cent were from tier 2; and 26 per cent were from tier 3, 4 and other rural districts.

LocalCircles said that they would share the poll results with FSSAI and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to ensure that the public’s collective input on the identification of ultra-processed foods is taken into account.