9 January 2025 01:01 am Views - 117
By Nuzla Rizkiya
The confectionary industry recently sought clarification from the government on how the businesses, particularly the small and medium-scale confectionary enterprises (SMEs), are expected to realistically comply with the new nutritional labelling requirements set to take effect from July 1, 2025.
As Sri Lanka has no facilities to measure the nutritional value of products, where the technology is available in countries such as India, Singapore and Malaysia, the industry stakeholders questioned how the SMEs can afford the high costs to carry out such tests abroad.
Speaking to Mirror Business, Lanka Confectionery Manufacturing Association Senior Advisor Adrian Fonseka stated that no local lab, including ITI, Bamber & Bruce or even global labs located in Sri Lanka such as SGS or Bureau Veritas, are equipped enough to test for naturally occurring sugars in food ingredients.
“There’s no way of doing these tests here and this is something only a large-scale company can probably afford. Even for them, if this is implemented by July 1, they won’t have enough time,” Fonseka stated.
He referred to clause six of the new labelling and advertising regulations announced by the government in 2023, which mandates the detailed listing of nutritional information such as carbohydrates, energy, natural sugars, protein and dietary fibre, on food product labels.
Although the regulation is well-intentioned towards the consumers by the Health Ministry, to reduce the noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), Fonseka noted that the rise in the NCDs is largely due to high carbohydrate consumption, which he pointed out can be even fuelled by the country’s staple food, rice.
Therefore, the regulation, which he opined is an effort by the authorities to implement the best consumer-friendly policies, has been clearly formulated without a data-driven approach, as the practicalities of implementing it in Sri Lanka have not been considered.
“It’s evident that these laws have been taken from various countries, without considering the practical aspect. We also often import products from different countries to compare our quality parameters and I have never seen a nutritional table in any of them,” Fonseka shared.
Another issue he highlighted was the infeasibility of applying the regulation to small packages such as 20ml essence bottles or 50g baking powder packs, where the consumers typically use in minute amounts.
He also criticised the idea of printing the labels on external packaging such as cases or boxes, as many local dealers cannot afford to buy the extra quantity of the same variety of a product.
“Even if we manage to squeeze a nutritional table onto these tiny labels, it will have no meaningful purpose. The consumers won’t even consider this information to measure the final nutritional value of their final dish,” he noted.
With only mere six months remaining until the regulations come into effect, Fonseka shared that the industry is left in frustration by the lack of clarity as to how the businesses are expected to comply with the rules.
Although there is significant lobbying to remove certain impractical requirements such as the listing of naturally occurring sugar levels, he stressed that the government is yet to announce an official confirmation of the removal.
“There are a lot of irregularities in these new rules. It’s also clear that the SME sector has not been included. Ultimately, it’s the industries that are left to survive,” Fonseka said.