On an infant-food label in Maharashtra, a familiar sentence has acquired fresh regulatory weight: “Mother’s Milk is Best for Your Baby.” The state Food and Drug Administration has ordered that such warnings be displayed prominently on products including formula milk, placing a clear instruction at the point where families encounter these foods. The requirement forms part of a comprehensive compliance order issued on 29 September 2026 [2].
The order reaches well beyond wording on a container. Advertising of formula milk and infant foods is prohibited, as are promotional routes including free samples, gifts, cashback, influencer activity and social media. Violations involving misleading advertising or substandard food can attract fines of up to 10 lakh rupees [2]. For parents and carers, the practical consequence is a marketplace intended to contain fewer commercial prompts around a deeply personal feeding decision.
This is also an effort to draw several responsibilities into one enforcement structure. The statewide order was issued by Food Safety Commissioner Tukaram Mundhe under Section 30 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. It brings enforcement of the Infant Milk Substitutes, Feeding Bottles and Infant Foods Act, 1992, and the Food Safety and Standards regulations for infant nutrition issued in 2020 under a single mechanism. It took effect immediately [1].
That immediacy matters because the rules address not only how infant nutrition products are made and sold, but how they are labelled and promoted. Maharashtra’s FDA cited concerns about breastfeeding practices and emerging health risks among children and adolescents in explaining the need for stricter enforcement [1]. The order therefore treats the commercial environment around infant food as part of the regulatory task, rather than limiting attention to the product alone.
The boundary is deliberately broad: advertisements, freebies and social-media promotions all fall within the crackdown, alongside the mandatory display of feeding instructions [3]. Whether enforcement delivers the intended protection will depend on how consistently the order is applied. Yet its central principle is already plain. At a vulnerable and often demanding point in family life, information about infant food should be visible, and promotion should not crowd the decision. That is a modest form of reassurance, but a meaningful one.
Yum Opinion: I think removing promotional pressure from infant-feeding decisions is a worthwhile step, provided families also receive clear and compassionate support.
