What is the 'warning in red' proposed by FSSAI on food products? How will it help

If all goes well, shopping for healthy food products could become much easier in India soon. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has told the Supreme Court that it has proposed a prominent red front-of-pack warning label for food products high in added saturated fat, added sugar, and salt. It is intended to provide a simple, prominent, and easily comprehensible warning to consumers about food products high in specified nutrients of concern. The warning label, if implemented, will be a red-coloured hexagonal shape for food products high in added saturated fat, added sugar, and salt.

What the label will say
The label will indicate warnings such as 'High Fat ', 'High Sugar', 'High Salt' or 'Highly Sweetened Beverage', enabling consumers to readily identify products high in the specified nutrients. The warning shall be displayed in a font size one point larger than that used in the nutrition information table on the back of the pack, as specified by FSSAI.  

These will be exempted
The following categories are proposed to be exempted from the front-of-pack warning requirement:
a) Single-ingredient food products
b) Food products which are inherently rich in fat, sugar or salt, such as ghee, edible oil, salt, sugar, jaggery and honey, subject to the applicability of other requirements under the food safety and labelling regulations.

To be implemented in phases
It is proposed that front-of-pack nutrition labelling (FoPNL) be implemented in phases to facilitate consumer acceptability and provide industry adequate time for reformulation. Phase I would cover products high in two or more specified nutrients—added fat, added sugar, and salt—and specified sweetened beverages; phase II would extend the warning to products high in any one of these nutrients. The proposed approach is intended to address the need for an effective, consumer-friendly FoP labelling mechanism and to facilitate informed food choices, particularly for children and other vulnerable groups in the population.
(With PTI inputs)