What is "nutritional dumping"? Suggest regulatory and ethical safeguards against it.

Nutritional dumping is when a company sells a less healthy version of a product in poorer or loosely regulated markets than it sells in stricter ones. FSSAI's draft rule to restrict sucrose and fructose in foods for infants up to six months [3] is a welcome first step, but it does not go far enough.

Understanding nutritional dumping

• Double standard: a 2024 Public Eye–IBFAN study found that 15 Cerelac products sold in India averaged over 2.7 g of added sugar per serving. The same wheat-based variant had no added sugar in the UK and Germany [1].
• Legal cover: Codex allows up to 20% added sugar in infant cereals [1]. Indian rules allow sucrose plus fructose up to 20% of carbohydrates [2]. So firms stay within the law while ignoring WHO advice against high-sugar foods for children aged 6–23 months [4].
• Motive: sugar is cheap, improves taste and builds a lifelong preference for sweet food. This adds to obesity in a country that already faces both undernutrition and overweight.

Regulatory safeguards

• Cover older infants too: the draft covers only 0–6 months [3]. The no-added-sugar rule should run to 24 months, as WHO advises [4].
• Judge the finished food: India could adopt a tool like WHO Europe's Nutrient and Promotion Profile Model (NPPM), which covers 6–36 months. It also counts the sugars released when fruit is puréed [5], so firms cannot just switch to fruit concentrate.
• Test across markets: FSSAI should regularly compare the same brand's products across countries rather than wait for foreign campaign groups to do it [1].
• Link recipe rules with marketing rules: enforce FSS rules together with the IMS Act, 1992, which restricts the promotion of infant foods [7].
• Deadlines: give firms a fixed period to change recipes, with penalties after it ends.

Ethical safeguards

• "One standard" pledge: firms should use their best recipe in every market. Codex sets a minimum, not a target.
• Honest labelling: show free sugar on the front of the pack. Do not market sweet purées as healthy fruit food; WHO Europe finds such purées fill baby-food shelves [6].
• Informed parents: promote exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months through the MAA programme and counselling at Anganwadi centres.

Nutritional dumping thrives in the gap between what the law allows and what health experts advise. Three steps can close that gap: a sugar limit on the finished food up to 24 months, independent testing, and company pledges to sell one standard everywhere. Together they would advance the State's duty under Article 47 to raise nutrition levels and SDG target 2.2 on ending all forms of malnutrition.