FSSAI has issued more than 150 notices to major food and beverage companies, including Nestle, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Abbott, Red Bull, Danone and Monster Energy, over misleading advertisements, false health claims and labelling non-compliances.

What makes this enforcement drive notable for anyone building or marketing a consumer product is its breadth: it isn’t limited to food manufacturers, but extends to e-commerce platforms (12 notices to Amazon and Flipkart, one Amazon warehouse licence cancelled) and quick-service chains (30+ notices to KFC, McDonald’s, Domino’s and others, five Domino’s licences suspended).

That range signals a regulator moving from spot-checks to systematic sweeps across an entire supply and marketing chain, rather than isolated enforcement against a single bad actor — a materially different risk profile for any company with ad claims on its packaging or marketing.

For founders in food, beverage, supplements or any consumer category with health or quality claims, the practical takeaway is that ad-copy review can no longer be treated as a low-priority legal formality; the notices show real consequences, including licence suspensions, not just warning letters.

The fact that companies as large and well-resourced as Nestle and Coca-Cola were still caught in this sweep is itself instructive: scale and legal resources don’t automatically protect against enforcement when claims drift ahead of what can be substantiated.

For smaller consumer brands watching this play out, the lesson is straightforward: build in substantiation for every health or performance claim before it goes on packaging or in an ad, because the cost of catching up after a regulator flags it is now demonstrably higher than the cost of getting it right upfront.

FSSAI has framed the drive as part of a broader push to strengthen consumer protection standards across the food and beverage industry, rather than a one-off campaign targeting specific brands.

The companies named include Nestle India, PepsiCo, Abbott India, Red Bull India, Danone India, Monster Energy India, Hell Energy, Mondelez India, Coca-Cola India, Diageo, Pernod Ricard, Ferrero India and Kenvue.

Photo by Chaitra B.H., Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0