FSSAI targets Emami, Plan B over misleading food labels

Plan B, a smaller player focused on plant-based meat alternatives, built its pitch around the "vegan" badge. Losing the ability to use it without prior FSSAI approval could blunt the brand's differentiation right when the plant-based category is seeing slowing growth.

The better market read

The real exposure is not the fine or the relabelling cost. It is the uncertainty around how many other products in a company's portfolio could be hit by the same standard. The FSSAI has been signalling for over a year that it would crack down on vague health claims. Now it is acting. The eight companies named today are just the first batch.

That means any food company with a product name that implies a health benefit, a lifestyle attribute, or an origin story without official backing should now be on radar. The ones with the most to lose are the mid-caps that rely on a single hero brand. Larger diversified players like Britannia or Nestle India have the legal teams and packaging capacity to absorb a labelling change in weeks. For a company like Emami, where the entire edible oil business is sold under a tagline that now looks vulnerable, the disruption is more concentrated.

Plan B is in a trickier spot. The company has less than 10 products on the market and every one uses a claim the regulator might question. A 30-day compliance window is short when you need to redesign packaging, get a new label approved, and coordinate with a small manufacturing base.

The FSSAI has not yet published the full list of companies or the exact deadline. The regulator wants prior approval for any claim that goes beyond the basic ingredient list. Companies that already submitted their packaging to the FSSAI's new e-approval system may have an advantage. The ones that did not are now in a reactive posture.