Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has signed an MoU with the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) to proactively curb misleading or unsubstantiated advertisements in the food and beverage sector.

 

Under this MoU, FSSAI has given a ‘suo moto’ mandate to ASCI to process complaints against misleading ads by food companies. ASCI will actively monitor advertisements across various media for this. In addition, ASCI will also report to FSSAI companies which do not comply with its directions after it has received complaints through the GAMA Portal set up by the Consumer Affairs Ministry.

 

In addition, FSSAI will also redirect complaints against misleading food and beverage advertisements to ASCI, which will be reviewed using ASCI’s code and guidelines.

 

Pawan Agarwal, CEO, FSSAI, said the MoU would effectively help in handling misleading ads related to food and will provide a paradigm shift towards handling such scenarios and bring transparency and accountability with the stakeholders’ participation.