Seven FSSAI labelling mistakes that delay product launches
Labelling errors rarely stop a formulation, but they routinely stop a launch. Here are the seven we correct most often before a pack goes to print.
Read the article →Health supplements and nutraceuticals in India are governed by a specific regulation with defined ingredient schedules, dosage limits and claim rules. Brands that treat it as a formality end up rewriting packs after they print, or fielding notices after they launch.
The three tiers of claims
- Nutrient content claims: statements about how much of a nutrient is present. These are the easiest to support, provided the analysed value meets the threshold.
- Nutrient function claims: describing the established physiological role of a nutrient. Permitted where the nutrient is present at a meaningful proportion of the RDA.
- Health and reduction-of-risk claims: the strictest tier, requiring substantiation and, in several cases, prior approval.
What is not allowed, ever
Claims to treat, cure, mitigate or prevent a disease belong to drugs, not to nutraceuticals. This includes implied claims through imagery, product naming and testimonials. A name that references a disease is itself a claim, which surprises a lot of brand teams late in the process.
Dose matters more than presence
Including a fashionable botanical at a fraction of the studied dose supports no claim at all and, increasingly, invites competitor complaints. If the evidence is built on 300 mg of a standardised extract, 30 mg buys you an ingredient list entry and nothing else. We would rather cut the ingredient count and dose the remaining actives properly.
Keep the substantiation file
For each claim on the pack, hold a file containing the specific evidence, the dose used in that evidence, and the level in your product. If the claim is ever challenged, the response time is the difference between a clarification and a recall. Building this file during development costs almost nothing; recreating it later is painful.
Write better copy inside the rules
Compliant claims are not weak claims. Specific, honest statements about composition, dose and standardisation build more trust with an informed supplement buyer than vague wellness language. The brands doing best in this category are the ones publishing their assay results, not the ones making the boldest promises.