India, Aug. 29 -- For years, an Indian shopper wanting to know how much sugar, fat or salt sat inside a packet of chips or a bottle of soda has had to turn it over and decode the small print. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) now wants to change that.

Under a proposal placed before the Supreme Court, a red hexagon carrying words such as "HIGH FAT", "HIGH SUGAR" or "HIGH SALT" could soon become a familiar sight on the front of packaged food in India, wherever the product crosses defined thresholds. The proposal comes almost a fortnight after the Supreme Court questioned the regulator's reluctance to introduce a front-of-pack warning system and gave it two weeks to take a final decision.

The significance of the prop...