Hindustan Unilever has renamed its “health food drink” to “functional nutritional drink (FND)”. The modifications were made following the instructions of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry which asked e-commerce websites to remove drinks from the ‘healthy drinks’ category. This advancement took away the health label of Horlicks making it a FND.
Ritesh Tiwari, the chief financial officer of Hindustan Unilever, said, “We have changed the labels of the category to FND which is a much better way to call it.” Announcing the changes through a press conference he added, “The category presents a big opportunity for growth and Hindustan Unilever will focus on increasing customers, usage and giving more benefits for consumers to upgrade in the FND category.”
Tiwari further added that the company is seeing better growth in the premium range focusing on diabetes and women’s health.
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights stated that there is no definition for ‘health drinks’ under the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006. Earlier, The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) instructed the e-commerce website to avoid putting dairy, cereal, or malt-based beverages under the ‘health drink’ category as it can mislead the customers.
“All e-commerce companies/portals are hereby advised to remove drink/beverages including Bournvita from the category of ‘health drinks’ from their sites/portals,” said the commerce and industry ministry.
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