Racial stereotype charges are unfortunate: Nestle India CMD

‘Nestle India’s added sugar content in Cerelac is much lower than upper limit prescribed by FSSAI’

Nestle India Chairman & Managing Director Suresh Narayanan on Monday asserted that the company’s infant food formulation for children below 18 months is done on a global basis and the allegation that “it is racially stereotyped is unfortunate” and untrue.

Addressing reporters here, he said the amount of sugar content in infant foods is determined by the capability to meet the nutrition profile of a particular age group and that is universal. Nestle India’s added sugar content in Cerelac is much lower than the upper limit prescribed by FSSAI, Narayanan added.

“There is nothing in this product that makes it a product that is potentially of any risk or any kind of harm to the child,” he said. As far as Nestle is concerned, he said a majority of sugars present in the product are natural sugars.

As per the Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the permissible level of added sugar is 13.6 grams per 100 grams of feed.

“Nestle is 7.1 grams, which is well below the standards and the maximum limits set up,” Narayanan asserted.

Earlier this month, Swiss FMCG major Nestle was accused of selling products with more sugar content in less developed countries.

According to findings by Swiss NGO, Public Eye and International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN), Nestle sold baby products with higher sugar content in less developed South Asian countries including India, and in African and Latin American nations as compared to its markets in Europe.

Countering the allegations, Narayanan said that every formulation for child food below 18 months is done on a global basis.

“There is no local kind of approach to making a nutritional adequacy study...Globally, the recipes are engendered in an age where energy dense products are needed by growing children. So there is no distinction that is made between a child in Europe and a child in India or any other parts of the world,” Narayanan said, adding the Codex requirement is fully followed up for Cerelac.

How this formulation gets translated into a product locally depends “on different considerations on local regulatory requirements on local availability of raw materials on some of the maternal feeding habits”, he added.

“I also want to add here very clearly that (both) addedsugar products and no-addedsugar products are present in Europe as well as in Asia. So the unfortunate allegation that it is racially stereotyped is unfortunate ... untrue,” he said.

Explaining the rationale behind added sugar content in Nestle’s baby food in India, Narayanan said meeting the “nutritional profile” could be different and the ingredients could also be different.

‘There is nothing in this product that makes it potentially risky or harmful to the child,’ he said