Indian Nutrition Rating (INR)

Why in news?

• The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India(FSSAI) has issued a draft notification on front-of-package labelling which proposes “Indian Nutrition Rating”(INR) on food packets.
• This move is aimed at letting consumers know the items with high salt, fat and sugar and to allow them to make informed choices while purchasing them.

About Indian Nutrition Rating (INR):

• The INR system rates the overall nutritional profile for packaged food by assigning it a rating from ½ % star (least healthy) to 5 stars (healthiest).
• More stars indicate the food product is better positioned to provide for the daily human need of nutrients.
• The rating shall be displayed close in proximity to the name or brand name of the product on front of pack.
• To generate the star-rating logo for the product, food businesses have to submit nutritional profiles of the products concerned on FSSAI’s FoSCoS (Food Safety Compliance System) portal.

Criteria for food Rating:

• Items would be given scores based on contribution of energy and content of saturated fat, sugar, sodium, fruit and vegetables (FV), nuts, legumes, and millets (NLM), dietary fibre, and protein per 100 gm of solid or 100 ml liquid foods.
• Solid food with a score of more than 25 will be given 0.5 stars, and those with a score less than – (minus) 11 will get 5 stars.

Exempted Products from the star rating:

• Food such as milk and milk products, whey, butter oil, ghee, vegetable oil and fat, fresh and frozen fruit and vegetables, fresh and frozen meat, egg, fish, flour and sweeteners will not have to display the star rating.
• Carbonated beverages without any energy or sugar will also not be eligible for declaring the rating.

PRACTICE QUESTION:

Recently, The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has issued a draft notification on “Indian Nutrition Rating” (INR) on food packets. In this context, consider the following statements

1. Milk products will not have to display the star rating

2. Increased proportion of saturated fat and sugar reduces the rating of the item.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer