FSSAI Pulls Up Nestlé India and Hindustan Unilever Over Misleading Claims on Nescafé, Resource Renal and Horlicks Mother's Plus
New Delhi: India's food safety regulator has served notices on two of the country's biggest fast-moving consumer goods companies — Nestlé India and Hindustan Unilever — over allegedly misleading claims and labelling violations on some of their most visible products, in a strict enforcement action that also saw the licences of two smaller food businesses suspended.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) announced the action on Saturday in a post on its official social media handle, saying the notices were issued after recent inspections and audits exposed inconsistent labelling, unsubstantiated health claims and regulatory non-compliance.
The action against Nestlé India covers multiple product lines. The first concerns its Nescafé ready-to-drink range — Nescafé Intense Café in cappuccino flavour, Nescafé Choco Mocha and Nescafé Chilled Latte — which are manufactured for the company by M/s Schreiber Dynamix Dairies Pvt. Ltd. and M/s Lotus Dairy Products Pvt.
Ltd. According to the regulator, the products carried conflicting declarations: the front of the pack declared them as "Flavoured Milk", while the back of the pack described them as "Proprietary Food – 1.12 Dairy Based Drink". Listings on e-commerce platforms added to the confusion, describing the products variously as "Coffee Flavoured Milk" and claiming they were "crafted with the goodness of flavoured double toned milk".
FSSAI said the products fall squarely under the standardised "Flavoured Milk" category, which makes the "Proprietary Food" declaration incorrect. Such inconsistent labelling, product descriptions and advertisements, it said, contravene the Food Safety and Standards (Advertising and Claims) Regulations, 2018 and the Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2020.
A separate notice targets Nestlé's Resource Renal vanilla-flavoured powder, a product intended for the dietary management of individuals with conservatively treated chronic kidney disease. The regulator said this is a "food for special dietary and medical purpose" which requires prior approval under the regulations introduced in 2022 — an approval Nestlé had not obtained. The label also lacked the mandatory vegetarian or non-vegetarian symbol, FSSAI added.
The notice to Hindustan Unilever concerns Horlicks Mother's Plus Kesar in the 400 g BIB pack. FSSAI said an examination of a consumer complaint, along with the product label, its advertisements and the product listing on an e-commerce platform, revealed potential violations relating to claims made for the product.
The claims "Healthy Birth Weight" on the product label and "For baby's healthy birth weight" in the advertisement were found to be potentially misleading and in contravention of the Advertising and Claims Regulations, 2018. The regulator observed that the phrase "Healthy Birth Weight" implied that the food itself imparted physiological health benefits, which was not in accordance with the applicable regulations.
FSSAI also flagged the inclusion of long descriptive phrases such as "For Pregnancy and Lactation with Protein for Birth Weight and DHA for Brain Development – No Added Sugar" as part of the product's name on the e-commerce platform, citing non-compliance with the prescribed requirements for product naming and claims.
Both companies have been directed to show cause and submit their responses within the stipulated period. The regulator said failure to provide a satisfactory response could result in further action under the applicable food safety laws.
Alongside the two FMCG majors, the regulator announced that licences have been suspended for M/s Sukhdarshan Pharma and M/s Bala Ji Food Products for serious food safety violations.
The crackdown is the latest in a series of enforcement steps by FSSAI against misleading health claims in the packaged food and beverage industry. In recent months the regulator has tightened scrutiny of claims aimed at vulnerable consumers — mothers, infants and patients.
It is currently moving to ban added sugar in food products for infants under six months of age, and has proposed new science-based limits for two pesticide residues in tea, signalling a broader push to bring everyday food products under stricter scientific oversight.
Industry observers say the action against household names like Nescafé and Horlicks is significant because it strikes at claims consumers encounter daily on television, digital advertising and e-commerce platforms. Health experts have long argued that terms such as "healthy birth weight" or "brain development" create an impression of medical benefit that goes beyond what a food product can legitimately promise, particularly when directed at pregnant and lactating mothers.
Under the 2018 Advertising and Claims Regulations, any claim relating to nutrition or health must be substantiated by adequate scientific evidence and must not mislead consumers.
The Labelling and Display Regulations, 2020, meanwhile, prescribe exactly how products must be categorised and declared — a product cannot simultaneously present itself as a standardised "Flavoured Milk" on one side of the pack and a "Proprietary Food" on the other, as FSSAI alleges in the Nescafé case.
For the special dietary and medical purpose foods segment, the 2022 regulations require companies to obtain prior approval from the regulator before launching products meant for the dietary management of specific diseases or conditions — the rule under which the Resource Renal powder has been flagged.
Consumer rights advocates have welcomed the action, saying enforcement against large manufacturers sends a message across the industry that size and brand recognition offer no shield from labelling law. What remains to be seen is how the two companies respond to the show-cause notices and whether the regulator escalates the matter to penalties or product-level restrictions.
For shoppers, the episode is a reminder to read the back of the pack as carefully as the front — and to treat health claims on packaging and e-commerce listings with healthy scepticism until the science behind them is on the label itself.
Established under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, FSSAI is India's apex food regulator, responsible for laying down science-based standards for food articles and regulating their manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import to ensure safe and wholesome food for human consumption.
In recent years the authority has expanded its enforcement footprint beyond factory inspections to cover e-commerce listings and digital advertisements, where it says misleading claims proliferate fastest. Whether this latest round of notices leads to penalties, corrective labelling or a quiet settlement will be watched closely by the industry, regulators and the millions of Indian households that buy these products every week.
(Reporting based on The Economic Times, Business Standard and Business Today.)