On shop shelves, imported foods may look attractive, but a study conducted by a Delhi-based consumer group has found 91 per cent of them violating Indian laws on labelling.

The Voluntary Organisation in the Interest of Consumer Education (VOICE) picked up 641 packed food products from 145 shops in Delhi. Out of this 191 were imported food items and the rest — 450 — were Indian. The foods included confectionery, fruit juices, sauces, baby food, canned fruit, vegetables and canned fish and meat. When these were examined for conformity with label laws, it was found that 91 per cent of the imported goods flouted them. VOICE also pointed out that some of the packages carried label information in a foreign language, thereby defeating the very purpose of giving it.

When India opened up its market for imported foods, it extended all packaging and labelling laws applicable to the Indian food industry, to imported goods too. Accordingly, all these packages have to carry the name and full address of the manufacturer and importer, date of manufacture, best before date, maximum retail price in rupees, batch number, information on the content, and its net weight or volume.

In addition, the government notified two more amendments aimed at imported goods. The one issued by the Union ministry of commerce and industry stipulated a minimum shelf-life for imported products. The notification, issued to prevent dumping of foods with short shelf-life on Indian markets, stipulated that the import of food products shall be subject to the condition that at the time of import, the products must have a valid life of not less than 60 per cent of the original shelf-life.

The second amendment was issued last year by the Union ministry of consumer affairs. As per this amendment to the Standards of Weights and Measures (Packaged Commodities) Rules, all imported packages have to carry the label information in Hindi or in English. This amendment was notified on September 24, 2003 and brought into force on December 1, 2003.

Some years ago, VOICE had done a similar survey of imported foods and scrutinised 457 items and found 81 per cent of them violating the Packaged Commodities Rules as well as the Prevention of Food Adulteration Rules. While 58 per cent of the samples did not give the required information on date of manufacture, 55 per cent did not indicate the batch number and 76 per cent did not carry the name or address of the Indian importer. The study also found many of the packages containing colours and flavours not permitted under the PFA rules.

It’s time consumers reacted to such violation of their right to information and boycotted all foods (including Indian) that fail to comply with laws meant to protect the interests of consumers. In fact, the Indian food industry did not come out in flying colours either in the VOICE survey. Over 26 per cent of them were found violating the labelling laws. So this calls for strong action from consumers and the law enforcement agencies.