Mandatory front labelling on packaged foods is need of the hour

The Union Health Ministry recently asked all Central government departments to display amount of oil, sugar and trans-fat in snacks such as samosa, chai, pakora, biscuit, jalebi etc in their cafeterias, meeting rooms, lobbies with an aim to raise awareness on harmful consumption of hidden fats and excess sugar in food items like these. While the ministry made it clear in its release that it has not directed warning labels on these food products and is not selectively targeting Indian snacks.

According to the government release these boards are meant to serve as daily reminders on fighting obesity, the burden of which is sharply rising in the country. Though the move has been appreciated by several health experts, they have also expressed disappointment over the government's inaction over the mandatory front-of-pack warning labels on food and beverage products high in fat, sugar and salt.

The packaged food industry is growing enormously; more and more people are becoming dependent on them due to their hectic lifestyle and several other reasons. The most dangerous among these packaged foods are the ready-to-eat ones and also ones which claim to be healthy. Some of the packaged foods may be healthy but most of them can be misleading in the name of being healthy. For instance, your healthy biscuits, cereals, protein bars can be high in sugar, salt or can also contain artificial sweeteners.  These all are being sold in the market without any check and regulations.

“The sugar boards or the oil boards do include information on sugary drinks and ultra processed foods but according to me I haven’t seen any research on such boards that they will decrease such consumption foods. The consumption is linked to the marketing practices of the food products industry. The misleading ads increase the consumption and create an alternative to your diet,” said Dr. Arun Gupta, Convenor, Nutrition Advocacy for Public Interest (NAPi) and also former member of PM’s Council on India’s Nutrition Challenges.

“The real enemy is the big food industry towards which the government doesn't seem to fight. The consumption of ultra processed foods has gone up by 50 times in the last 20 years. Secondly, during the same period, obesity has also doubled in India,” he added.

“Foods such as samosa, jalebi or any other street foods don’t indulge in marketing, they don’t advertise in newspapers. People buy when they like to buy it. They are high in calories but they are not marketed to be consumed daily. The real culprit is the prepackaged foods,” Dr Gupta stressed.

“According to government data, people are spending around 10 percent of their budget on processed foods. It’s the government's job to make people aware about the risks of these foods,” he demanded.

“The government is playing into the hands of the industry and they are trying to dilly-dally these things. Awareness should be led by the government not by any other influencer or industry,” he further said.

In June this year, a group of health experts, scientists, legal professionals and consumer rights advocates once again asked the government to adopt mandatory front-of-pack warning labels on food and beverages which are high in salt, sugar and fat (HFSS). The demand was made at a press conference organised to launch a national position statement on Front-of-Pack Nutrition Labelling (FOPNL). The event was organised by the Nutrition Advocacy in Public Interest (NAPi). It brought together more than 25 health and civil society organisations that have endorsed the Position Statement.

The motion of the conference was the observation made by the Supreme Court in April this year while hearing a public interest litigation related to misleading food packaging and inadequate labelling practices. It ordered the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to revise and finalise its pending 2022 draft regulation on FOPNL within three-months.

According to a report by UNICEF, unhealthy products often make misleading health and nutrition claims on their packages for promotion purposes. It includes claims related to specific nutrients, for example high in iron and claims about supposed health benefits, for example healthy heart, but often also includes the use of cartoons, brand characters, colours and packaging that appeal to children.

These claims can give unhealthy products a “health halo” and mislead consumers on nutritional quality as well as encourage children to force their parents to buy these products for them, resulting in children and families consuming more than they would otherwise. The report suggested that shoppers spend less than 10 seconds selecting each item — not enough time to review current back-of-the-pack nutrition labels. These detailed nutrition declarations are complicated for most consumers and point to the need for simpler and more helpful labelling.

UNICEF in its report further mentioned that the Front-of Pack Nutrition Labelling (FOPNL) refers to nutrition labelling systems that are presented on the front of food packages with the aim of supporting consumers to make healthier food choices at the point of purchase by delivering simplified and at-a-glance nutritional information. The demand for FOPNL has been a long pending one. Now the question is if the government is concerned about the alarming rise in obesity cases in the country and taking steps by asking to display sugar boards or oil boards in schools and office canteens then what is stopping it from regulating the packaged food industry?

We all know that most of the houses use packaged foods and are blindly dependent on them, and the consumption of it is likely to increase in the years to come. A detailed Front-of-Pack Nutrition Labelling will help consumers to choose wisely, and they will not feel cheated.