India's top meal safety authority has issued a sturdy advisory cautioning food businesses against the usage of the term "a hundred percent" on packaging, labels, and advertisements, calling it potentially misleading and legally non-compliant.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of india (FSSAI) announced on thursday that the usage of "100%" has seen a sizeable rise across food products in the market.
But this expression isn't always described below the Food Protection and Standards (FSS) Act, policies, or rules, and its usage can deliver clients a misconception of absolute purity, best, or superiority.
The regulator explained that using terms like "100%" or similar absolute claims can mislead consumers into believing that other similar merchandise is of lesser exceptionality or non-compliant with food safety requirements.
Such language, even though appealing in advertising, does not now align with the statutory requirements of the FSSAI policies.
The advisory warns that the use of "a hundred percent" might also amount to fake advertising, except the time period is in particular described and sponsored through evidence below present legal guidelines.
FSSAI has invoked unique provisions from the Meals Safety and Requirements (Advertising and Claims) Regulations, 2018: Sub-regulation four(1), which states that each claim made on
Meal labels or advertisements must be straightforward.
unambiguous, not deceptive, and ought to help consumers make knowledgeable selections.
Sub-law 10(7): Prohibits any declaration or commercial that undermines other merchandise or misleads purchaser notions.
FSSAI emphasized that any numerical or absolute terms, mainly without giving a definition, violate these provisions through introducing ambiguity.
The advisory follows FSSAI's advance stand before the delhi High Court, wherein it said that describing fruit juices as "one hundred percent fruit juice" is not legally permissible and constitutes a misleading advertising exercise.
In its affidavit submitted in june 2024 in reaction to a plea via Dabur, the meals protection body maintained that expressions like "a hundred percent" fall outside the prison framework and, absent any statutory backing, make such claims illegal under present-day meals policies..jpg)
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