The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) on Monday said it has signed an agreement with the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to safeguard consumers against misleading claims in food and beverage (F&B) advertisements.
Under the agreement, ASCI will identify advertisements, which prima facie violate provisions of Food Safety And Standards (Advertising And Claims) Regulations, 2018, and FSSAI would further investigate these. It will also set up a three-member expert panel to evaluate F&B advertising identified by the ASCI monitoring team.
Subhash Kamath, Chairman, ASCI, said, “This is a significant collaboration. The common goal of consumer protection drives us all to share skills, expertise and resources in the most effective way to curb the menace of misleading advertising.”
Manisha Kapoor, Secretary-General, ASCI, added, “With this agreement, ASCI will intensify its scrutiny of the F&B sector. We will tap our National Advertising Monitoring Service, which monitors over 900 TV channels and publications, and over 3,000 websites. Besides national brands, we will examine regional and local ones. Our experts, with decades of experience in the F&B sector, will shortlist those advertisements that require further scrutiny by FSSAI.”
ASCI said it has observed a marked increase in the number of complaints against F&B ads during the pandemic. "In the last financial year, ASCI has processed a total number of 284 complaints compared to 175 in FY 2019-20. So, claims by F&B brands, particularly those related to health and nutrition, are under greater scrutiny," the statement added.