India wanted red flags on chip packets and soda. Big Food fought back.

India's food-safety regulator recently abandoned efforts to require prominent nutritional warnings on the front of packaged products, citing cultural differences in Indian cuisine. This decision comes after the regulator agreed to a meeting with industry executives who argued that such labels would be confusing and ineffective, according to recordings of the meeting reviewed by Reuters.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) suggested that a black-and-white table of sugar, fat, and salt content would be more informative for consumers. However, public health activists and experts argue that more transparency in labeling could help forge healthier eating habits and reduce the country's obesity epidemic, which affects nearly half of India's population.

Despite the regulator's shift, several food companies have voluntarily adopted traffic-light-style labels in European markets to provide "clear and transparent" information about the nutritional content of their products.