Nestle India expands no refined sugar range with new Ceregrow variant

Nestle India on Monday announced the launch of the Ceregrow variant with no refined sugar as part of its broader strategy to reduce and eliminate sucrose from all products meant for children. This comes after the Swiss packaged food major announced a slew of no-refined-sugar variants in the Cerelac portfolio last year.

Vineet Singh, Head, Nestle Nutrition India, said, “At Nestle India, we are committed to continuously harnessing the power of our research and development to drive innovation and create quality products that can be trusted. The introduction of the new Ceregrow is another step towards this commitment and part of our journey to reducing and eliminating sucrose from all our products meant for babies and young children.”

Last year, Swiss investigative organisation Public Eye and IBFAN accused Nestle of having “double standards”, alleging that its popular baby food products, including Cerelac, sold in low- and middle-income countries like India, contained “added sugar”. It further said that such products are sold “without added sugar” in developed markets.

However, Union Health Minister J P Nadda informed the Lok Sabha in December that the government did not find any violation of sugar norms with regard to Nestle India’s Cerelac. In a written reply, he said that Nestle India is in compliance with added sugar regulations as per the Food Safety and Standards (Foods for Infant Nutrition) Regulations, 2020. At that time, the company also stressed that added sugar levels in its Cerelac portfolio were below the limits prescribed by the FSSAI and said that it is focusing on reducing “added sugar” in its product portfolio.