A Reuters investigation found that Fanta and other soft drinks sold in India are formulated to be significantly less healthy than the same brands sold in the UK and Europe. A can of Fanta in London contains 63 calories, while the Indian version contains roughly three times as much sugar. The Indian version also includes an artificial dye requiring prominent health warnings in Europe, whereas in India it is only disclosed in small print on the back of the can.
The investigation links this disparity to a regulatory fight, noting India’s food safety regulator abandoned a push for mandatory, colorful front-of-pack warning labels after a March meeting with industry executives, proposing a less prominent black-and-white nutritional table instead. At the meeting, a Coca-Cola India executive argued that front-of-pack labels were “very simplistic” and would not change consumer behavior. Reuters reported the irony that Coca-Cola voluntarily uses traffic-light labels in Europe and Nestle has used similar labels in Britain, while their Indian industry associations lobby against comparable domestic transparency rules.
Nearly 80% of India’s packaged food market, valued at over $100 billion, could qualify as high in fat, sugar, or salt under those labeling schemes. India’s Supreme Court is currently reviewing the regulator’s decision not to proceed with the warning labels, as public health researchers project roughly 450 million Indians will be overweight or obese by 2050.