Nutritional awareness: Label packaged food, but with caution

By Rameesh Kailasam and Rajesh Mehta

Rapid urbanization is greatly influencing people’s food consumption patterns, with an increasing trend towards packaged and processed foods. India’s consumption remains quite low compared to Western countries, especially the US, where these foods make up almost 70% of the country’s diet; however, consumer preferences seem to indicate a growing preference for Western packaged foods over Indian foods. There is also a movement to label foods in India based on their fat, salt and sugar content. Most of the traditional and indigenous Indian foods generally contain salt, sugar, brown sugar, ghee, oil and spices which are essential not only for their taste but also for having elements required uniquely for the Indian climate. For the past few years, in India, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has been pushing the proposal for interpretive food labels under front-of-package labeling regulations, ie. mark foods as ‘good food’, ‘not good food’, ‘one star food’, ‘red marked food’, etc., based on their salt, sugar and fat content. There are also discussions about recommending higher taxes on foods that have sugar, fat, salt and front-of-package labels in their effort to tackle rising obesity.

Most snacks like bhujiya or banana chips contain salt and fat, and sweets like rasgulla and mysore pak contain sugar. Even summer drinks like jaljeera, nimbu pani, lassi and chaach will have sugar/salt and food accompaniments like pickles or chutney will have salt and fat content. Another category of other traditional indigenous foods, such as parathas and thepla, may contain salt and fat. Therefore, if one were to take a look at what is in store in the future, one would most likely see their favorite indigenous foods and specialties emerging from different marked states. in red and labeled as ‘not good food’ and with a higher tax rate making them expensive and out of reach for the common man. So will this be a practical way for the FSSAI to make a sincere effort to ensure that consumers know what they are eating, or will it terrify them? Capacity building/awareness is equally the need of the hour for India’s vast food manufacturing ecosystem that sells packaged Indian foods that are much larger than the big brands as the vast majority of them are small manufacturers and women’s self-help groups. If children were the focus, then there are already proposed safeguards by the FSSAI and various state governments about foods high in fat, salt and sugar that should not be given to children in school canteens or sold inside schools. 50 m from school campuses.

Of course, everything that is consumed in excess is bad for health and the ideal is that consumers know what they are consuming and how much they should; however, labeling may not seem like the right way to go in the case of indigenous Indian foods as it has several implications. Imagine tourists coming to India to taste the best Indian delicacies and seeing red or no-good labels on them that can have a serious implication on tourism and holiday gifting optics. While no one is against informing and educating consumers and manufacturers, labeling can backfire if optics fail and taxes are levied. It should also be noted that Indian foods have traditionally been designed and prepared to adapt to and survive the prevailing climatic conditions of that region, as well as the genetic makeup of its people. For example, people in coastal states generally require and consume foods or beverages such as buttermilk, which is rich in salt due to excessive humidity and sweating. Similarly, the farming population in the northern states of Punjab and Haryana consume foods that are high in salt and fat to stay in the fields for hours on end as well as handle extreme weather conditions.

While the idea and practice of chasing sugar and salt is originally bizarre, it is perceived that global lobbyists are at play both for and against fat, sugar, salt and powder not even they have partially decided who is right or wrong. Both lobbyists have similarly deployed a battery of food and health experts to push their case with governments around the world. However, while it is the duty of the FSSAI to ensure that consumers are informed of what they are consuming, there has to be a better method of communicating permitted daily consumption levels rather than a dangerous display route that appears to mimic tobacco. Regulations like these may also have an adverse effect on villages, cottage industries, women’s self-help groups, small food manufacturers, and thousands of indigenous food manufacturers and food startups in every state whose livelihoods may be compromised by such rules and possible taxes. The proposed regulations have serious limitations and have been implemented by very few countries like Sri Lanka. Furthermore, since all packaged foods in the Indian market already have a nutrition table and grading points for vegetarian or non-vegetarian foods, the additional information can only confuse consumers and manufacturers. There must be training and education in addition to the practicality of food consumption patterns, climate and tourism optics that are equally essential to be considered, otherwise India’s traditional packaged food market is at risk. and the dilemma of being branded bad and taxed.

The authors are the CEO of Indiatech.org and a public policy consultant. respectively.