By Madhusha Thavapalakumar
Food producers will have to discontinue the use of terms such as “super”, “smart”, “gold”, and other superlatives due to the implementation of a 15-year old regulation by the Ministry of Health and Indigenous Medical Services.
The Food (Labelling and Advertising) Regulations 2005 under the extraordinary gazette issued under the Food Act No. 26 of 1980 is being fully implemented at the moment with a grace period of three months.
Full implementation of this Extraordinary Gazette after 15 years of its initial gazetting is likely to affect big brands such as Raigam, Maliban, and Munchee that have established their products in the market using such superlatives.
Speaking to The Sunday Morning Business, Ministry of Health Food Control Administration Unit Additional Assistant Director J.K. Jayasinghe noted that the usage of misleading superlatives in the names of food products goes against the gazette, unless these are scientifically proven.
“Companies cannot use misleading words in naming their products. Using them might not be of any harm to consumers’ health, but it is deceptive. For example, there can’t be ‘supiri samba’ rice. It is just samba rice,” Jayasinghe noted.
He added that they have already issued directives to the rice companies with a grace period of three months to change their names to exclude misleading superlatives or to prove the presence of that superlative in their product or scientifically justify its usage.
Accordingly, the companies that are willing to continue using superlatives have to submit the request with scientific explanations to the Food Control Administration Unit, where experts and officials will look into the explanations and grant the necessary approvals.
“If a product is using ‘special’, they have to explain what’s special in it. If another product is claiming ‘brain growth’, it should prove that it helps with brain growth. However, these companies cannot use health-related wordings in any way. In that case, people have to stop buying medicine and just consume those products,” Jayasinghe noted.
The companies and products that fail to justify the usage of the superlatives would be given a three-month grace period to eliminate the particular superlative. Companies that do not comply with the requirement even after the three-month grace period would face legal action, according to the Food Control Administration Unit.
This regulation also applies to the products that have already registered the names of their food products, unless they are scientifically proved and registered.
Commenting on the reason for the full implementation of the Food (Labelling and Advertising) Regulations 2005 after 15 years, he stated that it is a result of an ongoing court case between the Food Control Administration Unit and Raigam.
According to Jayasinghe, two years ago, a consumer lodged a complaint with the Ministry of Health against Raigam’s noodles packet named “Devani Batha”, stating that the name was misleading.
Subsequently, the Food Control Administration Unit of the Ministry asked Raigam to change the name of their product, which Raigam refused to do and instead filed legal action against the Director General of the unit at the time. Then Raigam came up with another name similar to its previous name. The Food Control Administration Unit did not approve the new name, which led to another court case. Both cases are still going on.
“In the second legal case, the Attorney General at the Court of Appeal told us that if we are not willing to approve a name that is misleading to the public, we shouldn’t do that only for Raigam’s products, but for all the food products also. That is why we have decided to implement this after 15 years,” Jayasinghe noted.
We reliably learn that this regulation has created concern among food producers who have established their brands in the domestic and international markets over decades, while some of the products are widely known mostly due to these superlatives.
A senior industry official, on condition of anonymity, told us that Sri Lanka’s food industry will be hugely affected if the names of established products have to be amended.
Food producers will have to discontinue the use of terms such as “super”, “smart”, “gold”, and other superlatives due to the implementation of a 15-year old regulation by the Ministry of Health and Indigenous Medical Services.
The Food (Labelling and Advertising) Regulations 2005 under the extraordinary gazette issued under the Food Act No. 26 of 1980 is being fully implemented at the moment with a grace period of three months.
Full implementation of this Extraordinary Gazette after 15 years of its initial gazetting is likely to affect big brands such as Raigam, Maliban, and Munchee that have established their products in the market using such superlatives.
Speaking to The Sunday Morning Business, Ministry of Health Food Control Administration Unit Additional Assistant Director J.K. Jayasinghe noted that the usage of misleading superlatives in the names of food products goes against the gazette, unless these are scientifically proven.
“Companies cannot use misleading words in naming their products. Using them might not be of any harm to consumers’ health, but it is deceptive. For example, there can’t be ‘supiri samba’ rice. It is just samba rice,” Jayasinghe noted.
He added that they have already issued directives to the rice companies with a grace period of three months to change their names to exclude misleading superlatives or to prove the presence of that superlative in their product or scientifically justify its usage.
Accordingly, the companies that are willing to continue using superlatives have to submit the request with scientific explanations to the Food Control Administration Unit, where experts and officials will look into the explanations and grant the necessary approvals.
“If a product is using ‘special’, they have to explain what’s special in it. If another product is claiming ‘brain growth’, it should prove that it helps with brain growth. However, these companies cannot use health-related wordings in any way. In that case, people have to stop buying medicine and just consume those products,” Jayasinghe noted.
The companies and products that fail to justify the usage of the superlatives would be given a three-month grace period to eliminate the particular superlative. Companies that do not comply with the requirement even after the three-month grace period would face legal action, according to the Food Control Administration Unit.
This regulation also applies to the products that have already registered the names of their food products, unless they are scientifically proved and registered.
Commenting on the reason for the full implementation of the Food (Labelling and Advertising) Regulations 2005 after 15 years, he stated that it is a result of an ongoing court case between the Food Control Administration Unit and Raigam.
According to Jayasinghe, two years ago, a consumer lodged a complaint with the Ministry of Health against Raigam’s noodles packet named “Devani Batha”, stating that the name was misleading.
Subsequently, the Food Control Administration Unit of the Ministry asked Raigam to change the name of their product, which Raigam refused to do and instead filed legal action against the Director General of the unit at the time. Then Raigam came up with another name similar to its previous name. The Food Control Administration Unit did not approve the new name, which led to another court case. Both cases are still going on.
“In the second legal case, the Attorney General at the Court of Appeal told us that if we are not willing to approve a name that is misleading to the public, we shouldn’t do that only for Raigam’s products, but for all the food products also. That is why we have decided to implement this after 15 years,” Jayasinghe noted.
We reliably learn that this regulation has created concern among food producers who have established their brands in the domestic and international markets over decades, while some of the products are widely known mostly due to these superlatives.
A senior industry official, on condition of anonymity, told us that Sri Lanka’s food industry will be hugely affected if the names of established products have to be amended.