Reading the food label before clicking "Add to Cart"

The Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) proposes to check e-commerce company platforms for compliance with food safety regulations starting next month, which is laudable. The move follows observation by the country's top food safety authority that several food products claiming misleading claims, false representations and non-compliant labels continue to be available on various e-commerce platforms. FSSAI inspection teams also exposed a deeply troubling relabelling scam by seizing giant quantities of expired food products from multiple dark stores of major e-commerce platforms across cities, where expired food items were repackaged with fresh labels to bypass safety checks for delivery to consumers.  A direction issued by the FSSAI in July made it clear to e-commerce platforms that they cannot abdicate their responsibilities for ensuring the food-safety compliance of products they aggregate. The FSSAI directed all e-commerce Food Business Operators (FBO) to verify product information before publishing or listing food available for online purchase and delivery and to de-list non-compliant food products. Seizure of expired food products in e-commerce dark stores and warehouses exposes a glaring surveillance and enforcement gap, despite the FSSAI insisting that food safety is a collective responsibility and that every entity involved in the supply chain, from manufacturing to home delivery, is liable for compliance. Selling expired products is also a breach of trust with consumers and an act of fraud, as they depend on the information provided on food product labels. Selling expired products constitutes a breach of trust with consumers and an act of fraud, as they rely on the information provided on food product labels when placing online orders for grocery items from e-commerce or quick-commerce platforms. FSSAI has made it clear to e-commerce platforms that they cannot claim to be mere aggregators and that food-safety compliance is primarily the responsibility of e-commerce food business operators (FBOs). They will help evade legal responsibility if any listed product is of sub-standard quality, displays incorrect labelling or a false claim of being organic, is unhealthy, or is an expired product that has been relabelled with fresh dates by tampering with the original date stamp to deceive consumers. Online availability of non-complaint food products exposes persistent surveillance and enforcement gaps. The failure on the part of FSSAI and state food safety inspection machinery to keep pace with the rapid growth of e-commerce and quick commerce highlights that the required regulatory architecture is yet to evolve in the country.  Unscrupulous e-FBOs and digital commerce platforms are taking advantage of this critical gap to exploit consumers. This calls for enforcing stringer penalties for non-compliance so that such punitive actions carry a genuine deterrent impact across the digital marketplace. Nevertheless, the online campaigns run by FSSAI to raise consumer awareness about the importance of carefully reading labels need to be intensified, as these efforts will help ensure that informed choices apply pressure on e-FBOs and digital commerce platforms to comply with safety standards and guarantee that labelling is done correctly to protect consumer interests and safeguard against health risks. The food regulator advises online buyers to read information about the FSSAI licence number, ingredients, nutrition, and expiry date to make an informed choice before the selected food packet goes into the cart. A major focus of the Eat Right Campaign is reducing excessive sugar and salt intake to prevent lifestyle health risks. The campaign demands that food packets display accurate information about sugar and salt quantity apart from other information on the label, as false labelling or suppression of excessive sugar and salt content will pose serious health risks to consumers. Increased awareness among online buyers about food safety has led to a rise in consumer complaints against the supply of spoilt food. Expired, rotten, and unsafe food highlights the necessity of intensifying the awareness drive to empower every online grocery buyer, whether through e-commerce or quick commerce, to lodge complaints and escalate them if food business operators (FBOs) do not take action. Stronger awareness among each and every online buyer is crucial to fill the surveillance gaps. Collaborative action by food inspectors and consumers can strengthen legal action against non-compliant e-FBOs, but the number of consumers who carefully read the labels is still very low compared to the exponential rise in online buyers of food products. It is not just the comfort of doorstep delivery simply by pressing the smartphone buttons or the ease of digital payment that has influenced the rapid growth of e-commerce and quick commerce across the country. The pressure of modern-day work life has also driven the popularity of digital commerce by increasing the range of products, including a larger list of grocery items and various food products, while skipping kirana shops and physical store shopping. The time pressure also significantly affects consumers' ability to read labels and make informed choices while ordering food products online, and most of them make quick decisions without scrutinising nutritional information, which cannot be overlooked. A pragmatic solution lies in mandating clearer digital disclosures and stronger food-safety compliance norms across all digital platforms.