As India seeks European-style health labels on food and soda, lobbies fight back

NEW DELHI/LONDON – A can of Fanta sold in London has 63 calories. Buy the same brand in India, and it contains three times as much sugar. 

It also includes artificial dye, the presence of which in food products in Europe requires a prominent health warning. In India, the colorant’s presence is noted merely in small print on the back of the can. That suits some of the world’s biggest companies, which have long resisted Indian efforts to mandate nutritional warnings on the front of packaged products.

Consumer giants like Coca-Cola, which makes Fanta, appear to have the advantage. India’s food-safety regulator said in August that it had abandoned a push for colorful warnings on the front of food packaging. It said such warning labels don’t account for how Indian cuisine has more intense flavors than Western food and instead proposed that companies display a black-and-white table of sugar, fat and salt content.