Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi
New Delhi, Oct 18: The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has issued notices to Nestle India and Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) over alleged misleading claims, incorrect labelling and violations of food safety regulations involving several products.
The food regulator said Nestle India was found marketing Nescafé Intense Café Cappuccino, Nescafé Choco Mocha and Nescafé Chilled Latte on e-commerce platforms with inconsistent product descriptions. While the front of the packs described the products as "Flavoured Milk", the back labels declared them as "Proprietary Food - 1.12 Dairy Based Drink". Their online listings also described them as "Coffee Flavoured Milk" and carried claims such as "crafted with the goodness of flavoured double toned milk".
According to FSSAI, the products fall under the standardised category of "Flavoured Milk", making the declaration of "Proprietary Food" incorrect. The regulator said the labelling and advertising violated the Food Safety and Standards (Advertising and Claims) Regulations, 2018, and the Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2020.
In a separate notice, FSSAI raised concerns over Nestle Resource Renal Vanilla powder, a nutritional product intended for the dietary management of chronic kidney disease. The regulator said the product required prior approval under the 2022 regulations governing foods for special dietary use and foods for special medical purposes. However, the required approval had not been obtained. FSSAI also pointed out that the product label lacked the mandatory vegetarian or non-vegetarian symbol.
FSSAI also flagged several claims made on Hindustan Unilever's Horlicks Women's Plus Chocolate, sold in a 400-gram pack. The claims "Nutrition for Strong Bones", "Clinically Proven to Help Improve Bone Strength in 6 Months" and "Improves Bone Health" were found to be misleading or non-compliant with the applicable regulations.
The regulator further stated that the use of the phrase "Healthy Muscles" violated rules governing the use of the term "healthy". The "No Added Sugar" claim was also considered misleading in view of the presence of maltodextrin in the product. Additionally, the claim "100% RDA of Calcium, Vitamin D & K2" did not comply with the applicable requirements. FSSAI also found that the nutritional information table was not presented in the prescribed format. The regulator has asked the concerned licensing authorities and e-commerce platforms to take appropriate action.
FSSAI also raised concerns over claims made on Horlicks Mother's Plus Kesar, sold in a 400-gram bag-in-box pack. The phrases "Healthy Birth Weight" on the product label and "For baby's healthy birth weight" in advertisements were flagged as potentially misleading because they implied that the food itself imparted health benefits.
The regulator also objected to the inclusion of phrases such as "For Pregnancy and Lactation with Protein for Birth Weight and DHA for Brain Development No Added Sugar" in the product name displayed on an e-commerce platform, stating that the listing did not comply with the applicable requirements.
In separate enforcement action, FSSAI cancelled the licence of Bala Ji Food Products with immediate effect following continued non-compliance with food safety requirements. The company has been directed to stop all manufacturing and distribution activities.
The regulator also suspended the licence of Sukhdarshan Pharma after an inspection revealed unhygienic storage and processing conditions, a lack of required records and an overall compliance score of just 11 per cent. The suspension will remain in force until the company fulfils the prescribed requirements, FSSAI stated.