India Focus: Unilever India, FSSAI sweetener stance, millets for the military and more feature in our round-up

Volatile variability: Unilever India stresses caution for food business despite positive growth​

Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) has highlighted it will be proceeding cautiously in managing its food business for the rest of the year despite positive results in Q2FY2023, citing continued volatile climate changes and inflationary pressures.

HUL recently announced its Q2FY2023 financial results, reporting a 6.4% year-on-year revenue growth to INR153.3bn (US$1.85bn) and 8% year-on-year net profits growth to INR24.7bn (US$298.8mn).

Country-specific context: India reiterates no-go stance on sweetener use for weight management​

The Food Safety and Standards Authority India (FSSAI) has stressed that existing local guidelines do not endorse the replacement of sugar with sweeteners for weight loss, while joining calls for more localised research to be conducted on its impacts.

The agency has made this statement in the wake of the World Health Organisation (WHO) guideline earlier this year that made a ‘conditional recommendation’ against the use of non-sugar sweeteners (NSS) to control body weight or reduce the risk of non-commmunicable diseases such as diabetes.

Military millets: India’s food and defence ministries formalise agreement to boost government-level millet consumption​

The Food Safety and Standards Authority India (FSSAI) and India’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) have officially agreed to collaboratively boost millet consumption at the government level, starting with the nation’s armed forces.

FSSAI CEO Kamala Vardhana Rao and MoD Director General (Supplies and Transport) Lt. Gen. Preet Mohindera Singh formalised an agreement between the two ministries to increase the use of millets in military canteens as well as in other public forums.

High ranks, low scores? India State Food Safety Index data reveals lack of compliance even in top performing states​

Date from India’s latest State Food Safety Index (SFSI) conducted annually by the Food Safety and Standards Authority India (FSSAI) has revealed that many states still perform poorly across the assessment criteria, even amongst its top scoring states.

FSSAI recently unveiled the fifth edition of its SFSI and highlighted Kerala, Punjab and Tamil Nadu (large states), Goa, Manipur and Sikkim (small states) and Kashmir, Delhi and Chandigarh (Union Territories/UTs) to emerge as the top performers amongst all the 28 states and eight UTs in the country.

‘Healthier and more experimental’: Indian brewery Bira 91 lifts the lid on consumer trends guiding innovation​

Delhi-headquartered brewery Bira 91 has detailed how consumer demands for ‘healthier and more experimental’ products are guiding its innovation strategy, while also revealing its plans for a ‘premium’ Indian beer.

It recently received funding of USD$10m Japan’s MUFG bank and USD$70m from brewery giant Kirin, which will be channelled towards expanding its production capacity and distribution networks domestically and globally.