• Restrictions on using mascots in advertising, sponsoring children’s events
• Requirement for product names in 3 languages on small packages
• Mandatory nutrition tables impractical for small packs; lack of testing facilities for natural sugar
• Stringent rules for food and beverages while other sectors remain largely unaffected

Local food and beverage manufacturers have questioned the practicality of new advertising and labelling rules imposed on food and beverage products that took effect on 1 January.

Speaking to The Sunday Morning Business, Lanka Confectionery Manufacturers’ Association (LCMA) Senior Adviser Adrian Fonseka questioned the practicality of the new rules imposed on food and beverage products by the Food (Labelling and Advertising) Regulations 2022 and the double standards in applying such stringent rules with regard to labelling and advertising only on food and beverage products.

He stated that the Food (Labelling and Advertising) Regulations 2022 had banned the use of pregnant or lactating mothers, infants, or children under the age of 12 years on the product label; print, electronic, and social media; or any other means when advertising food products. 

Moreover, it also imposed a ban on the promotion of food products to children under the age of 12 years by way of advertisements, leaflets, free samples, articles or toys attached to food items or separately or by using cartoon characters, mascots, celebrities or any other form, unless approved by the Chief Food Authority.

“According to the regulations we can have mascots, but we cannot show the mascot on a TV commercial,” Fonseka stated.

He stated that the rationale relied upon by the Government to impose these irrational rules was that mascots were being used to attract children to purchase the respective food or beverage products. 

According to him, as a result of these new rules, food and beverage manufacturers will be precluded from sponsoring children’s day events, school sports meets, or other such related events henceforth.

However, he pointed out that these new rules were limited only to food and beverage products, whilst products such as talcum powder were free from such restrictions.

He added that such double standards were illogical and that the Government should impose these rules across the board.

Fonseka noted that under the Food (Labelling and Advertising) Regulations of 2022, the common name of the product must be specified in bold letters in all three languages on the main panel of the package, as opposed to the previous situation which required only that the common name of the product be set out in the main panel in two languages.

“Certain products come in small packs. If we have the common name in three languages, there won’t be enough space for anything else,” he stated. 

He further pointed out that the regulation had also imposed a mandatory obligation to have a nutrition table on all food and beverage products. However, he noted that such a blanket rule was impractical with regard to smaller packs such as one-ounce food colourings and essence bottles, where there was no room to accommodate a nutrition table.  

“What is the purpose? Even if we have a nutrition table, no one is going to use that for calculations because they are used in minute quantities,” he said. 

Another issue he highlighted was the fact that the nutrition table stipulated by the regulations required that a distinction be made between added sugar and naturally occurring sugar despite the absence of lab facilities in Sri Lanka to identify the difference. 

Fonseka further pointed out that no local lab, including the Industrial Technology Institute (ITI) and Bamber & Bruce, or even global labs located in the country such as SGS or Bureau Veritas, possessed the facilities to test for natural sugar.

“This clearly shows that they have not studied it. They should have checked. They cannot expect a small-time manufacturer to send their products abroad and get it tested,” he asserted. 

The regulations were promulgated by Gazette Extraordinary No.2319/40 published on 14 February 2023 and were originally slated to come into operation from 1 January 2024. However, the date of operation of the Food (Labelling and Advertising) Regulations of 2022 was later postponed to 1 January 2025 by Gazette Extraordinary No.2364/24 of 27 December 2023. 

Thereafter, by Gazette Extraordinary No.2416/51 of 28 December 2024, the date of operation of a majority of the regulations was once again postponed to 1 July 2025, while Regulations 13(16), 13(17), 13(18), and 14 will come into operation on 1 January 2025 as previously announced.