Child rights body turns up heat on Bournvita maker for breach in food safety norms

Twenty grams of Bournvita has 7.5 grams of added sugar.

India’s apex child rights body has asked Mondelez International India Ltd, the company that sells Bournvita, to review and withdraw all misleading advertisements, packaging and labels related to the milk supplement citing non-adherence to mandatory disclosure of its sugar content.

A social media influencer had recently faced backlash from the company after his video, posted on Instagram on April 1, “exposing” the details related to the high levels of sugar in Bournvita had gone viral. He was served a legal notice by the company and had to delete his video online.

In the fresh notice issued, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has pointed out that the labelling and display norms by the  Food Safety Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) mandate the display of red colour coding for the products that have added sugar content value more than 10 percent of the total energy provided by the 100 g/ml of the product.

“Prima facie (it) has been observed that your product, seem to have bypassed the threshold with the use of labels ‘Maltodextrin liquid glucose’ which needs to be mentioned under the class title “added sugar..” read the notice.

Also read | The Bournvita Debate: Is shooting the messenger helpful?

The NCPCR also observed that the company violates the advertisement norms by not making it explicitly clear that the contents of the product may be harmful to children under the stipulated norms.

The Commission asked the company to also submit a detailed explanation for the violations and an action taken report on its notice. It also flagged the matter to the food safety regulator FSSAI.