FSSAI asks Nestle India to prove Lactogen Pro 1 is 'easy to digest' as baby food crackdown widens

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has asked Nestle India to back up its claim that the whey protein in its Lactogen Pro 1 infant formula is “easy to digest”, one of a fresh round of notices the regulator sent on Wednesday to infant food makers and a social media influencer.

The notice asks the company to submit scientific substantiation within the stipulated period and to explain why action should not be taken against it under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. Food businesses, the regulator said, must support every claim on a label, a pack or an advertisement with adequate scientific evidence.

Nestle India had not publicly responded to the notice by Wednesday night.

Immunity, brains and Instagram

The Lactogen notice was one of several. In another, FSSAI took issue with a claim that certain ingredients in a product helped support the normal immune system, saying it could suggest the food was suitable for a particular physiological condition. “The claim was considered non-compliant with provisions prohibiting claims relating to the prevention, alleviation, treatment” of disease, the notice said.

An individual influencer was also served notice over Instagram posts that credited recommended infant formula products with balanced nutrition, stronger immunity, brain development and easy digestion. “The promotion of infant milk substitutes was alleged to violate the Infant Milk Substitutes Act, 1992, as amended in 2003,” the regulator said. That law bars the advertising and promotion of infant milk substitutes. The notices also cite the advertising and promotion rules in the Food Safety and Standards (Foods for Infant Nutrition) Regulations, 2020.

FSSAI chief executive Rajit Punhani has said that more than 150 food and beverage makers have received notices in recent months. Products such as Complan and Nestle’s Nan Excella Pro Stage 1 have drawn similar action.

Second time for the same claim

The Lactogen line is not new to the regulator. On 18 September FSSAI started three adjudication cases against Nestle India. Two were over claims on Nan Excella Pro Stage 1 and the “easy to digest” whey protein claim on Lactogen Pro 1, which it said breached Regulation 4(2) of the 2020 infant nutrition rules and Section 3 of the Infant Milk Substitutes Act. The third concerned a follow-up formula that a referral laboratory found short on biotin.

Nestle India said then that “the said products (i.e., NAN EXCELLA PRO & LACTOGEN PRO) and their labels were approved by the expert committee of FSSAI”, and that its label statements were “factual in nature and supported by scientific literature”.

The notices come days after FSSAI proposed a ban on added sucrose and fructose in food for babies under six months.