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With misleading ads on rise, FSSAI sets up panel to scrutinise claims by FBOs
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Tuesday, 22 July, 2025, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Ashwani Maindola, New Delhi
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With many cases of false advertisements related to some products reported, the food authority, FSSAI, has constituted a specialised Advertisement Monitoring Committee, tasked with scrutinising promotional claims by food business operators (FBOs) across various media, including social and e-commerce platforms.
As per a Union Ministry of Health report, the food authority has uncovered 219 cases, last year, of misleading advertisements violating the norms set under FSS Act.
“This committee routinely surveys the advertising landscape, swiftly identifying any misleading claims that fail to align with regulatory standards. For any apparent violations, corrective measures-such as issuing Improvement Notices under Section 32 of the FSS Act, 2006-are promptly enacted. Over the past nine months (January 2024 to September 2024), the committee has held eight meetings and reviewed a wide array of advertisements, uncovering 219 instances of non-compliance. These cases were referred to enforcement authorities, instructing FBOs to either withdraw deceptive claims or provide scientific evidence to validate them,” reads the Health Ministry Report.
It was part of the larger enforcement activities carried out across the country. Besides advertisement, the enforcement was carried out to check and restrict manufacturing of stapled tea bags, honey, tea, health supplements, spices, infant food, and milk & milk products.
Licensing & Registration
One major aspect of enforcement was to make the food businesses get licence or register under the FSS Act.
As per Union Ministry of Health, the cumulative figures for the active licences and registrations as of Oct 31, 2024, are 60.54 lakhs for the entire country. The number of Central Licences [including Airport/Seaports and Railway Stations] is 79,056; State Licences are 10,57,022; and Registrations are 49,17,701.
According to the Ministry, steps are being taken continually to simplify the procedure of licensing and registration of food businesses and digitisation of enforcement activities.
As per the Health Ministry report, to facilitate ease of doing business, FSSAI enabled the instant issuance of licences/registrations for specific categories such as wholesalers, distributors, retailers, transporters, storage without atmospheric control, importers, food vending agencies, direct sellers and merchant-exporters from June 28, 2024.
However, the instant issuance via FSSAI's Food Safety Compliance System (FoSCoS) is subjected to digital verification through GST, PAN, AADHAAR and so on.
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