The government is in the process of finalising guidelines which have been drafted to deter the advertising industry from making unsubstantiated and misleading claims about their products.
The guidelines are based on the recommendations of the committee set up by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India to investigate claims made by Hindustan Unilever Ltd about 'Kissan Amaze'. FSSAI is an autonomous statutory body set up under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, and administered by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Some scientists had complained to the health ministry a couple of months ago that the claims made by HUL -- that its Kissan Amaze gives 33 per cent key brain nutrients required by children daily are not true. HUL, on its part, countered the claims in its reply to the authorities. FSSAI, then, set up a 5-member committee (headed by Vasantha Muthuswamy, former deputy director general, Indian Council of Medical Research) to investigate the claims.
"The advertising rules and regulation will be based on guidelines recommended by the committee which investigated the Kissan Amaze case. The committee has drafted a 15-page document on guidelines detailing what can be shown in ads and what can't be," said a government official involved in the matter.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the recommendations will be reviewed and put on its website for consultation with the stakeholders within the next seven days. After taking cognizance of the feedback it receives, the guidelines will be notified and companies with 'misleading' advertisements will be subject to punishment, which could also result in calling back the product from the market.
The official added that the FSSAI-appointed committee has completed its investigation and will soon send a notice to HUL in the context of the Kissan Amaze case.
