By Navneet, Chief Regulatory Expert at Regbite

Front-of-Pack Nutrition Labelling is the longest-running “about to happen” in Indian food regulation. The draft was released in September 2022. It attracted more than 14,000 stakeholder comments. Those comments have been under examination ever since.

In 2026 a Parliamentary committee urged FSSAI to finalise and notify the regulations within a defined timeline, criticising the delay directly. That is the most concrete movement this file has seen in years — but I want to be careful with you: a Parliamentary committee urging action is not a notification. There is still no operative text, no symbol specification you can design to, and no commencement date.

So the useful question is not “when will it land.” It is “what can I do now that will not be wasted if the final text differs from the draft?”

What is reasonably settled

Across the draft and the surrounding policy direction, a few things have been consistent enough to plan around:

  • Something goes on the front of pack. Whether it is a Health Star Rating, a warning symbol, or a hybrid, the principal display panel is losing space.
  • The trigger is nutrient thresholds — total sugar, sodium and saturated fat, assessed per serving or per 100g.
  • Salt, sugar and fat declarations are being pushed toward greater prominence, including bolder and larger type in the nutrition panel.
  • It is aimed at HFSS products — high in fat, salt or sugar.

What is genuinely unsettled — and where I would not spend money yet

  • The symbol system itself. Health Star Rating and warning labels imply very different artwork. Designing final packaging to either one right now is a gamble.
  • The exact thresholds. These moved between drafts and are the single most lobbied element.
  • The size and placement specification, which determines how much of your front panel you lose.
  • Whether, and how, it applies to nutraceuticals and health supplements specifically rather than general packaged food. This is the question I get asked most and the one with the least clarity.

What I would actually do in the next quarter

  1. Calculate where every SKU sits against the draft thresholds. Not to design artwork — to find out which products would carry a mark. If a product is comfortably under, FOPNL is a non-event for it. Knowing which of your SKUs are the problem is most of the work, and that analysis holds regardless of which symbol system wins.
  2. Reformulate the marginal ones now. If a SKU sits just over a threshold, reformulation is a product decision with a long lead time. Starting it after notification means carrying a mark for a year while you fix it. Flavoured protein powders, gummies and anything with added sugar are where I find the marginal cases.
  3. Leave space in your artwork template. Not a designed symbol — space. Front panels are already crowded with your product name, the FSSAI licence number, the veg/non-veg mark and the “NOT FOR MEDICINAL USE” statement. The brands that will scramble are those with no room left.
  4. Do not buy a “FOPNL-ready” service that claims to know the final rules. Nobody does. Anyone selling certainty here is selling you a guess.

The honest position

I would rather tell you that a rule is uncertain than have you reprint packaging twice. A regulatory adviser whose every answer is “this is coming, act now” is not giving you intelligence — they are giving you urgency, which is a different product.

What Regbite does here is narrower and, I think, more useful: we track this file and tell you when the status actually changes, rather than when someone writes an article speculating that it might. If and when FOPNL is notified, it becomes a rule in the engine, your portfolio is scored against it, and you get told which of your SKUs carry a mark — with the threshold calculation shown, so your formulation team can argue with it.

Until then, the useful work is knowing your numbers. That part you can do today, and it will not be wasted whichever way the final text goes.

Status as at August 2026: FOPNL remains un-notified. This article is general guidance, not legal advice, and should be re-checked against fssai.gov.in before any packaging decision.

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