Choosing a marketing agency for a food or beverage brand
What to ask a marketing agency before hiring them for a food or beverage brand, and why FSSAI compliance knowledge should be a hard requirement.
4 min read
FSSAI's Advertising and Claims Regulations 2018 set specific conditions for common marketing words used on food packaging, and a design that uses a restricted term loosely can create a real compliance problem discovered only after packaging is printed and in market.
What needs specific substantiation
- 'Natural', 'fresh' and similar terms, which carry specific conditions under FSSAI's rules.
- Nutritional or health claims, which need to match actual tested composition.
- Comparative claims against other products, which need a fair and substantiated basis.
Mandatory label content under the Labelling and Display Regulations
FSSAI's Labelling and Display Regulations 2020 specify required information — ingredients, nutritional information, FSSAI licence number, batch and date detail — that must be present and legible regardless of the design's creative direction.
A packaging claim checked against FSSAI's rules before printing costs nothing extra — the same check after a print run is finished can cost a great deal.
Design that stands out within the constraints
Compliance requirements do not have to mean generic design — clear compliant labelling and strong, appetite-driven visual design can coexist, and often the discipline of working within real constraints produces cleaner design than an unconstrained approach.
The takeaway
Check every claim word on your packaging — 'natural', 'fresh', 'healthy' — against FSSAI's Advertising and Claims Regulations 2018 before finalising a design, not after printing.
Written by Fibvo — Bengaluru and Erode, India — working with clients in other time zones. Questions, or think we have it wrong? Tell us.
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