Walk into any Indian supermarket and pick up a packet of biscuits. The back of the pack is covered in tiny text, logos, numbers, and claims. Most consumers glance at the price, check the expiry date, and move on.
That is a problem. According to FSSAI food label requirements, every packaged food product in India must declare a wealth of information that directly affects your health. But this information is only useful if you know how to read it.
This guide will teach you exactly that. By the end, you will be able to pick up any product in an Indian grocery store and know whether it deserves to go in your cart.
1 FSSAI License & Logo
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is the regulatory body that oversees all packaged food sold in India. Every legitimate product must display the FSSAI logo and a 14-digit license number on its packaging.
This 14-digit number is your proof that the product is registered and compliant. The first 1-2 digits indicate the type of license (10 = Central, 2X = State). You can verify any license at foscos.fssai.gov.in.
What the FSSAI mark means
- The manufacturer has been inspected and meets basic food safety standards.
- The product's ingredients and processes have been reviewed for compliance.
- It does not mean the product is healthy. It means it is legally permitted to be sold.
Visit foscos.fssai.gov.in, click "Verify License/Registration," and enter the 14-digit number. If no result appears or the details do not match the product, avoid that brand.
2 Ingredient List
By law, every packaged food in India must list its ingredients in descending order by weight. This means the first ingredient makes up the largest proportion of the product, and the last ingredient makes up the least.
Why the first 3 ingredients matter most
The first three ingredients typically account for 70-80% of the product by weight. If sugar, refined flour (maida), or palm oil appear in the top three, that product is primarily made of cheap, unhealthy ingredients regardless of what the front of the pack claims.
The top three ingredients are maida, sugar, and palm oil. Additionally, there is invert sugar syrup listed later, meaning this product has multiple sources of added sugar. Brands often split sugars into different names to push each one further down the list.
Hidden sugar names to watch for
- Invert sugar syrup, dextrose, maltose, fructose, corn syrup
- Honey, jaggery, and coconut sugar (still added sugars)
- Fruit juice concentrate (concentrated sugar)
- Maltodextrin (technically a carbohydrate, but spikes blood sugar like sugar)
3 Nutrition Facts Panel
The nutrition information panel is the most data-rich section on any food label. Under FSSAI food label requirements, manufacturers must declare energy, protein, carbohydrates (including total sugars), total fat, and sodium. Many also include saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, and dietary fibre.
Per serving vs. per 100g
This is where most people get confused. Brands are required to show values per 100g (or 100ml), but they often also include a "per serving" column. Always compare products using the per 100g column, because serving sizes vary wildly between brands (more on this in Section 8).
The 5 key values to check
- Sodium — Anything above 600mg per 100g is high. The WHO recommends less than 2,000mg of sodium per day (about 5g of salt). Many Indian snacks exceed 800mg per 100g.
- Total Sugars — Aim for less than 5g per 100g for a "low sugar" product. Above 15g per 100g is high. Remember this includes naturally occurring and added sugars.
- Trans Fat — This should be 0g. There is no safe level of industrially-produced trans fat. Note: FSSAI allows products with less than 0.2g per serving to declare "0g trans fat," so check the ingredient list for partially hydrogenated oils.
- Dietary Fibre — Higher is better. Above 6g per 100g is considered a good source. Fibre slows sugar absorption and keeps you full longer.
- Protein — Compare within categories. For example, one brand of atta might have 11g protein per 100g while another has 13g. That difference matters over time.
Look at the per-100g column. If sodium > 600mg, sugar > 15g, or trans fat > 0g, think twice. If fibre > 6g and protein is competitive within its category, that is a good sign.
4 Date Markings
Indian food labels include date information that tells you about both safety and quality. Understanding the difference is critical.
Batch numbers and traceability
Every product must have a batch number (or lot number) printed on the package. This is critical for traceability. If a product is recalled due to contamination, you can check whether your specific batch is affected. The batch number is also useful when filing complaints with FSSAI's consumer grievance portal.
Always check both the manufacturing date and the best-before/use-by date. A product with a 12-month shelf life that is already 10 months old is technically valid but may have lost nutritional value, especially for vitamins and healthy fats that degrade over time.
5 Allergen Declarations
FSSAI mandates that all packaged food products declare the presence of 8 major allergens. This information must be printed in a "Contains" statement, usually near the ingredient list. Products manufactured in facilities that also process allergens must include a "May Contain" advisory.
"Contains" vs. "May Contain"
- "Contains: Milk, Wheat" — The product definitely includes these allergens as ingredients.
- "May contain traces of Peanuts" — The product is made in a facility where peanuts are also processed. Cross-contamination is possible.
For people with severe allergies, even the "May Contain" warning should be treated seriously. Anaphylactic reactions can be triggered by trace amounts.
Some Indian brands still do not comply fully with allergen declaration requirements. If a product does not have any allergen statement and contains ingredients like whey protein, casein, gluten, or soy lecithin, the allergens are present even if undeclared. Read the ingredient list carefully.
6 Health Claims
This is where food labels go from confusing to actively misleading. Front-of-pack health claims are designed to sell products, not to inform you. Here are the most common tricks used in India.
7 Vegetarian / Non-Vegetarian Marks
India has a unique and mandatory food labelling requirement: every packaged food product must display a coloured symbol indicating whether it is vegetarian or non-vegetarian. This is governed by the Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations.
A few things to know about this system:
- Eggs are non-vegetarian under Indian labelling law. A cake with eggs will carry the brown dot.
- The symbol must be printed as a contrasting coloured circle inside a square, and must be on the front of the package.
- This system is unique to India and is often the fastest way to check dietary compatibility at a glance.
- Some products display the mark very small or in a corner that blends with the packaging design. Look carefully, especially on imported products repackaged for India.
8 Serving Size Tricks
This is one of the most effective tools brands use to make unhealthy products look acceptable. By defining unrealistically small serving sizes, they can make the "per serving" nutritional values look much better than they actually are.
Serving Size: 20g (about 3 chips)
120 kcal
Sugar: 1g | Sodium: 140mg
Servings per pack: 7.5
Realistic serving: 75g (half the bag)
450 kcal
Sugar: 3.8g | Sodium: 525mg
That is 26% of your daily sodium limit
Common serving size manipulations
- 150g bag of chips listed as 7.5 servings. Nobody eats exactly 20g of chips and puts the bag away. The real consumption is 2-3 servings minimum.
- 500ml bottle of juice listed as 2.5 servings. The bottle is designed to be consumed in one sitting, but the label divides it to halve the sugar count.
- Instant noodles listed as "per cake" when the pack contains two cakes. People cook and eat the full pack.
- Biscuit packs listing a serving as "2 biscuits" when the average consumer eats 6-8 in a sitting.
Always use the per 100g column for comparisons. It eliminates serving size games entirely and gives you an apples-to-apples comparison between any two products.
9 How Praan Automates All of This
You have just read through nine sections of label-reading knowledge. It took about 10 minutes. Now imagine doing all of this analysis in a grocery store aisle for every product you pick up. You would never leave.
That is exactly why we built Praan.
Praan is a food health scoring app designed specifically for Indian consumers and FSSAI standards. Here is what happens when you scan a product barcode:
- Instant health score (0-100) — We analyse the full nutrition panel, ingredient list, additives, and NOVA processing level to give you a single score. No mental math, no squinting at tiny text.
- Ingredient breakdown — Every ingredient is categorised and colour-coded. Harmful additives are flagged. Hidden sugar names are identified and totalled.
- Allergen detection — All 8 FSSAI-mandated allergens are highlighted instantly. Set your allergen profile once and get warnings automatically.
- Health claim verification — We cross-reference front-of-pack claims with actual nutritional data. If a product says "high protein" but has only 4g per 100g, Praan flags the discrepancy.
- Healthier alternatives — For every product you scan, Praan suggests similar products with better scores that are available in Indian stores.
Stop reading labels. Start scanning them.
Praan does in 3 seconds what this entire guide taught you to do in 10 minutes. Every product. Every time. Built for Indian packaged food.
Download PraanReading food labels is a skill every Indian consumer should have. Even if you use Praan for the speed and convenience, understanding what is on the label gives you the foundation to make informed choices for yourself and your family.
The food industry spends billions on packaging design meant to distract you from the facts. The nutrition label is the one place where they are legally required to tell you the truth. Learn to read it, or let Praan read it for you.