India, Sept. 17 -- The Clean Label Credibility Test

India's clean-label boom is facing its toughest test yet. FSSAI's recent crackdown on health and purity claims is threatening the marketing language that helped many D2C brands grow. Can "healthy" food startups survive when every claim must stand up to evidence?

The Label Under Fire: FSSAI's recent notices to 20 legacy and D2C brands has brought claims such as "100% natural" and "healthy" under scrutiny. Brands built on "ingredient transparency" were caught using date powders and fructose while advertising zero added sugar. Rather than challenging the FSSAI's notices, several brands quietly opted to scrub these absolute claims and overhauled their packaging.

But the situation took a s...