The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has initiated legal action against Nestlé India for substandard baby food products and misleading claims. This comes amid a crackdown on food adulteration and misleading advertisements.
On Friday, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) announced that it had taken legal action against Nestlé India. The action was prompted by a sample of one of the company’s baby food products being found substandard during testing. Specifically, the 'follow-up formula', a milk product for infants, was found to be 'sub-standard with respect to biotin'.
In addition to this, two other products, NAN Excella Pro Stage 1 and Lactogen Pro 1, were flagged for making allegedly misleading claims. These violations are said to contravene the 2020 Foods for Infant Nutrition Regulations and the 1992 Infant Milk Substitutes Act.
The regulator has specifically noted claims relating to '5 HMOs' and whey protein on NAN Excella Pro Stage 1, and a claim about whey protein being easy to digest on Lactogen Pro 1. It is important to note that '5 HMOs' refers to a blend of five Human Milk Oligosaccharides.
Nestlé India spokesperson stated that both NAN Excella Pro and Lactogen Pro had been approved by the regulator’s expert committee. The company also asserted that their products are 'fully compliant with all the applicable regulations' and that statements appearing on the label, which are factual in nature, are supported by scientific literature.
After the food regulator’s announcement on Friday, the share price of Nestlé India fell 2.4%, but recovered to a fall of 0.5% by the time the market closed. The firm is the Indian subsidiary of Swiss food-processing conglomerate Nestlé.
Source:
Scroll.in
