Ask for ORS at your local pharmacy and odds are you will be handed a tetrapack of ORSL or some other liquids that may have the letters ORS on their packaging but are not actually the formulations recommended by the World Health Organization. ORS or oral rehydration salts are a vital formulation that is used in the treatment of dehydration. And it was this mislabelling and the potential of these products to cause harm, that led Hyderabad paediatrician Dr Sivaranjani Santosh to take this case up. Dr Sivaranjani first wrote to the Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation, then to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India and finally approached the courts to get these products to stop using ORS on their labels. Finally last month, the Delhi High Court upheld the FSSAI's ban on the use of the term ‘ORS’ in food and beverage labels, which Dr Sivaranjani termed a 'major victory for public health and consumer safety.'
Guest: Dr. Sivaranjani Santosh, Hyderabad-based paediatrician
Host: Zubeda Hamid
Edited by Sharmada venkatasubramanian
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