FSSAI left in limbo as Food Authority remains unreconstituted weeks after term ends

New Delhi: Two weeks after the term of the Food Authority that oversees all functions of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) expired, the government is still to reconstitute the body. Now, consumers buying packaged food have more reasons to check ingredient lists, ultra-processed content, and potentially misleading labels after the country's food watchdog is left headless.

The government's failure to reconstitute the Food Authority after its term expired last month has pushed the FSSAI into regulatory limbo. Without the authority in place, FSSAI cannot approve new regulations, update food standards or even clear key policy decisions.

"The Food Authority oversees all functions of FSSAI, including approval of new regulations and standards, licensing of food businesses, monitoring quality, and providing scientific advice for policymaking," said George Cheriyan of the Consumers Protection Association (CPA). The delay, he added, has created a regulatory vacuum.

FSSAI did not respond to requests for comment seeking reasons for the delay in appointing new members to the Food Authority.



A restaurant chain which had applied for a license to start a new outlet is still waiting for approval, said the founder of the company. While all the procedural work at the FSSAI can take place in the absence of the authority, licenses for large investments and approval of products which have novel ingredients need the authority's approval.

The Food Authority that includes government officials as well as representatives from consumer groups, the food industry, and small-scale enterprises, meets periodically to guide policy. Its members completed their term on Dec 21 last year.

The FSSAI had sent letters inviting recommendations from industry representatives and consumer groups for the formation of food authority in July 2025. However, the appointments are still pending.

The lapse has raised particular concern as the Supreme Court has directed FSSAI to submit recommendations on mandatory front of pack warning labels (FOPL) for packaged foods by October 2025 and responsibility for meeting this deadline is with the Food Authority.

FOPL was expected to be a major reform, with FSSAI earlier proposing mandatory pictorial warnings such as traffic light signals or star ratings to indicate how healthy a food product is. However, after years of deliberation and strong opposition from the food industry, the proposal was shelved.

Instead, in 2024, FSSAI approved a diluted alternative requiring nutritional information on total sugar, salt, and saturated fat to be displayed in bold letters and in a larger font size. Health activists argued that abandoning pictorial labels reduced the effectiveness of the measure, especially for consumers with limited literacy.

The Food Authority of FSSAI bears overall responsibility for responding to the Supreme Court's deadline.