Consumer Awareness and Contemporary Policy Regulations on Artificial Food Colourant Safety in India

Jananipriya Rameshbabu and Usha Swaminathan^*

School of Social Sciences and Languages, Vellore Institute of Technology University, Vellore, India.

Corresponding Author E-mail: susha@vit.ac.in

The purpose of this research is to focus on the most practised Artificial Food Colourants (AFCs) creating a demand in the consumer food market and neglecting food safety by the stakeholders, as these AFCs have been proven to be harmful to human health. The problem question that has been addressed here is whether the labeling policy and the consumer awareness of AFC are in tandem with; how the Indian judiciary fared in delivering their judgements towards the prevalence of non-permitted AFCs in the Indian food market to tell them as successful for the healthier consumer food industry. The main objective is to examine the consumers’s awareness on AFC on the International Numbering System for Food Additives (INS) and their mentioning on the label of food products along with the regulatory measures for approvals of AFCs in Europe, USA and India for comparison. It is revealed that consumers’ awareness of INS is not very significant; FSSAI permits only eight AFCs for consumption, nevertheless, other non-permitted AFCs were also found to be used and the Indian government has acted responsibly on various occasions by entering the manufacturing premises to inspect the food, collect samples for testing the adulteration by submitting to the food analyst, thereby curbing such activities and grabbing such offenders to the court. The concept of food safety dimensions in consensus with AFC practices, the health and legal issues associated with AFC consumption, the Indian Government’s policies and the response of the judiciary related to food colourant safety are discussed in this paper. A doctrinal research method is followed by analysing the legal literature such as the regulatory provisions, government policies and noteworthy cases from the Indian judiciary and drawing support from empirical research evidencing the poor knowledge of consumers on AFCs being added in the food. Therefore, a serious policy awareness among consumers with respect to AFCs, being responsible and taking ownership towards one’s own health and their family members by taking steps in questioning the consumer forum and avoiding purchase of such packed food which does not adhere to the labeling standards and being consumer friendly, stringent regulations in labeling standards of food in the USA and Europe due to import nature of their products are the need of the hour.

Artificial food colourants; Consumer awareness; Health risks; Indian judiciary; Regulations

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