FSSAI Issues Notices to Nestlé and Hindustan Unilever
India’s Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) issued the notices on October 19 under the enforcement provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Act. The regulator asked both companies to provide technical explanations within a specified period, including evidence supporting the scientific validity of their claims and the statutory approvals for distribution.
The notice concerning Horlicks Mother’s Plus Kesar relates to statements made on maternal nutritional powder. Surveillance officials questioned wording that presented the product as supporting a healthy fetal birth weight. FSSAI said the wording could be misleading under the Food Safety and Standards Advertising and Claims Regulations, 2018, because it implied a direct physiological outcome without established clinical causation.
Regulators also cited product descriptions used in online listings. These included references to protein for birth weight, fatty acids for fetal cognitive development and the absence of added sugar. The findings covered commercial advertising, e-commerce listings and product packaging rather than laboratory composition alone.
The action involving Nestlé’s Resource Renal powder concerns a specialized formulation intended for dietary management associated with chronic kidney disease. Inspection teams found that the product lacked the pre-market approvals required under the 2022 rules for Foods for Special Medical Purposes. They also reported that the packaging did not carry the mandatory green or brown vegetarian identification marks required by the Food Safety and Standards Labelling and Display Regulations, 2020.
FSSAI said unsatisfactory responses could lead to legal measures under India’s food-safety framework. The measures listed in the notice include restrictions on marketing, product recalls and revocation of commercial licences. The proceedings address both the claims made for maternal nutrition products and the approval and labeling status of clinical nutrition products.
The notices come as food-safety monitoring in India covers health-food beverages, maternal supplements and medical-nutrition products sold through supermarkets, quick-commerce services and other digital channels. Authorities are examining claims appearing in online product titles, search terms and promotional material alongside conventional packaging and product information.
Specialized nutrition products also use higher-value dairy ingredients, including demineralized whey solids, ultrafiltered milk-protein isolates and particular milk-fat fractions. These materials are used in clinical renal diets, maternal beverages and fortified dairy products. The proceedings therefore concern product claims and regulatory compliance across categories that use specialized milk-derived ingredients, in addition to the two named brands.
