Gandhinagar: Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Tukaram Mundhe on Saturday said celebrities and advertisers have a responsibility to ensure that products they endorse do not compromise public health, backing President Droupadi Murmu’s recent appeal to film personalities to refrain from promoting substances harmful to health.
Mundhe made the remarks during an interaction with students at Karnavati University, where he was speaking during his first visit to Gujarat.
The discussion covered food safety, public health, regulation and the responsibilities of public figures.
President Murmu had urged successful film artists at the 72nd National Film Awards at Ekta Nagar in Gujarat on September 22 to promote a disciplined lifestyle and avoid endorsing products harmful to health, noting the influence popular artists have on children and young people.
Asked about steps beyond such an appeal, Mundhe said Maharashtra had already started acting on existing legal provisions.
“The law is very clear; you cannot endorse anything that is not as per the law. We cannot endorse anything where you can claim something which is not truthful,” he said.
Mundhe referred to Section 24 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, which restricts misleading advertisements and claims relating to food.
He also cited the Food Safety and Standards (Advertising and Claims) Regulations, 2018, which are part of the regulatory framework governing food advertisements and claims. FSSAI lists the 2018 advertising and claims regulations among its food safety regulations.
“If you speak to the drug sector, there is an MDR Act 1954, which is a magical remedies act. It also prevents claims about purity or magical remedies; this will be done, this will be cured,” he said, referring to the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954.
Mundhe said the issue was therefore not the absence of laws but their implementation.
“So, the acts do exist, rules do exist; what we need to do is implement them and implement them very, very stringently,” he said.
His comments came amid regulatory action involving Bollywood actors over a Vimal Elaichi advertisement.
The Maharashtra FDA had issued show-cause notices to Shah Rukh Khan, Ajay Devgn and Tiger Shroff in August in connection with the advertisement. Mundhe also stressed that responsibility did not end with regulators.
“Ethically and morally, everybody, every citizen, every endorser, every advertiser has a responsibility if they don’t act just in the commercial interest,” he said.
“People of India are not because of somebody. So, we as a nation need to practise what is right, which is correct, which is ethically also correct,” he added.
Mundhe said public health had to remain central to decisions involving food, drugs and advertising, and that celebrities could not be treated separately from the legal and ethical responsibilities applicable to others.
(IANS)
