This week, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), prompted by the Supreme Court, came up with a simple but overdue idea. Packaged foods high in fat, salt or sugar should have a prominent red warning on the front of the package rather than in small print on the back. Anyone who buys instant noodles, breakfast cereal or a “health drink” will finally realize at first glance that it is not as healthy as the advertising claims. This is a welcome step. Moreover, this in itself is far from sufficient.
The number of children with morbid obesity and diabetes has increased dramatically in just a few years. The World Obesity Atlas 2026 confirms this: 41 million Indian children and adolescents aged 5 to 19 years are currently overweight or obese. This isn’t just because kids are eating more; it’s about them being sold. Breakfast cereals, sweetened yoghurts and “health drinks” are marketed to parents as filling gaps in children’s diets, emphasizing “energy” and vitamins but saying little about the sugar content inside. In 2024, a leading multinational was found to be adding sugar to baby food sold in India and other low-income countries; sugar was removed from the same product in Europe. When a health drink popular in Indian homes turned out to be nothing more than flavored sugar syrup, it took a social media storm rather than a regulator to force the company to mandate a 15 percent cut in added sugar.
The problem is exacerbated in schools and colleges, where research shows that the cheapest and most readily available snacks are also the least healthy. The popular ‘energy drink’ among teenagers, which costs just £20, contains around 17 grams of sugar, caffeine and artificial colors per bottle. The label says that it is not intended for children, but there is nothing stopping a child from buying it. This is the market price for unhealthy calories, which is equivalent to a child’s pocket money.
The need for enforcement
None of this is a secret. What is lacking is enforcement. FSSAI and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) have long recommended that schools should not sell, but the optional rules are considered optional and canteens sell whatever sells cheapest. A red warning sign only works if it is actually followed.
Moreover, the new rule is limited to organized retail trade. Most of the sugar, salt and trans fats in India are consumed unbranded, from street stalls, dhabas and sweet shops that make up the unorganized sector, none of which are required to declare anything. The red label on the biscuit package has nothing to do with the jalebi sold next to it. Regulations that only apply to packaged foods leave half the plate untouched unregulated.
There is also a conversation that India continues to avoid – the sugar tax. When the UK introduced a levy on soft drinks manufacturers, sugar consumption fell among both children and adults. Manufacturers have changed the composition of their drinks to lower the tax threshold rather than raise prices. A well-designed sugar tax not only discourages people from buying the product, but also pushes the industry to make the product itself less harmful.
India already taxes sugary drinks heavily; just no use. From September 2025, carbonated and sweetened drinks, including sugar-free versions, were lumped into the same slab at 40% GST – so ‘regular’ cola and its zero-sugar counterpart pay the same tax and there is no reason for manufacturers to cut sugar. The levy in the UK worked differently: drinks were taxed based on their sugar levels so that companies could reduce their bills by reformulating the product. India could tax food in the same way to give producers a reason to cut sugar.
The standard objection—that such a tax would hit the poor hardest—is not wrong, but it is only half the argument. Unregulated, cheap sugar is already costly for the poor, who bear the brunt of the epidemic of diabetes, hypertension and childhood obesity caused by high-sugar diets, while having the fewest resources to treat them. Doing nothing is not neutral; it is a slower and more expensive tax that is paid when one is in poor health rather than with rupees in the till. The answer is to design a tax calibrated by sugar content so that it encourages reformulation, with some of the revenue directed toward making healthy foods cheaper.
The proposed red label by FSSAI is a genuine, albeit belated, first step. What India needs now is the determination to finish what it started – mandatory food standards; restrictions on the sale of unhealthy foods to children; rules covering the unorganized sector; and an honest debate about taxing sugar in a way that protects families least able to cover costs, taxes, or illness.
Dr. Praveen George Paul is an Associate Professor, Department of Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Paediatrics, Christian Medical College, Vellore. Dr. Vandana Jain is Professor, Division of Pediatric Endocrinology, Department of Paediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
Published – September 10, 2026 01:35 EST.