True Story: Food companies are lying to you. The regulator failed to stop them

Aug 14, 2026 - 20:30

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Companies selling packaged food products in India often claim that they are healthy, natural, pure, sugar-free – but are they actually so?

In 2024, a committee of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India reviewed more than 160 food products that had been flagged for making misleading claims. Two years later, our investigation found a majority of those claims were still in circulation.

In this episode of True Story, Scroll’s Executive Editor Supriya Sharma speaks to Shreegireesh Jalihal who spent months investigating how the Indian government’s efforts to regulate the industry are falling short.

Also read: India’s food regulator flagged over 160 misleading claims. Years later, 120 are still around

How India’s ambitious plan to curb unhealthy food failed...