{"id":69826,"date":"2021-09-20T17:44:09","date_gmt":"2021-09-20T12:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.himshimlalive.com\/?p=69826"},"modified":"2021-09-20T17:48:16","modified_gmt":"2021-09-20T12:18:16","slug":"junk-foods-must-carry-a-warning-label-cse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.himshimlalive.com\/?p=69826","title":{"rendered":"Junk foods must carry a \u2018warning\u2019 label : CSE"},"content":{"rendered":"

New CSE analysis on food labelling says existing nutrition information on food\u00a0<\/strong>packs confuses consumers, does not let them know how bad their food is<\/strong> Despite years of discussions and delays, India remains far away from a simple<\/strong> and effective labelling system to \u2018warn\u2019 consumers about harmful levels of<\/strong> fat, salt and sugar hiding in ultra-processed foods<\/strong> CSE analysis highlights how the powerful industry has been derailing efforts<\/strong> to make a law that can help contain obesity and non-communicable diseases<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

New Delhi<\/strong>:<\/strong>\u00a0Centre for Science and Environment\u2019s (CSE)\u00a0latest analysis on food labelling has called for a law on front-of-pack labelling that can inform the Indian consumer about unhealthy packaged junk foods in a simple and effective way. The analysis has been published in the latest issue of\u00a0Down To Earth.<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

\u201cCountries are working to find ways to nudge consumers into healthy food choices and to contain the growing crisis of obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and heart ailments. It is a crisis that increasingly impacts children and also worsens the Covid-<\/strong>19<\/strong> symptoms,\u201d says Sunita Narain, director general, CSE and editor of\u00a0Down To Earth.<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

\u00a0\u201cFront-of-pack labelling is definitely an effective tool in this effort. The current nutrition information on the food pack only helps the industry to keep consumers confused and does not let them know about how bad their food is,\u201d adds Narain.<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

The analysis systematically presents how after seven years, four committees and two draft regulations, India still does not have the much-needed front-of pack labelling law to \u2018warn\u2019 consumers about harmful levels of fat, salt and sugar hiding in ultra-processed junk foods.<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

\u00a0\u201cCSE was part of the FSSAI-constituted committee that first proposed front-of-pack labelling in India in <\/strong>2014. <\/strong>Ever since, the packaged junk food industry is pushing hard to delay it and make it weak,\u201d says Amit Khurana, director, food safety and toxins programme at CSE and lead author of the analysis.<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

\u00a0\u201cWhile the lobbying by powerful industry is not surprising, the real concern is that the FSSAI has been hesitant to take a strong stand to protect the interest of consumers and public health,\u201d adds Khurana.<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

The authors of the analysis, who were also part of the <\/strong>2021<\/strong> stakeholder consultations organised by the FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India), have also elaborated on how these consultations have not made meaningful progress and instead have opened possibilities for front-of-pack labelling options, which are weak, regressive and preferred by industry. Another study is now proposed by FSSAI to analyse major front-of-pack labelling models to identify ease of understanding and behavioural change of Indian consumers.<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

The analysis clearly enumerates how the draft thresholds (limits above which a product could be marked unhealthy) proposed by the FSSAI-constituted working group have suited the packaged food industry, as they were much relaxed than those proposed by FSSAI in its earlier labelling drafts of <\/strong>2018<\/strong> and <\/strong>2019<\/strong> as well as those adopted by countries with best practices. The draft proposed thresholds have now been put on hold; most consumer organisations had opposed them.<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

This working group was formed to look into the issue of thresholds following a CSE study (December <\/strong>2019) <\/strong>which said that most popular packaged junk foods have salt and fat content several times higher than the thresholds proposed by FSSAI in its labelling drafts of <\/strong>2018<\/strong> and <\/strong>2019<\/strong>; therefore, they would have been marked \u2018red\u2019 as per the proposed law at that time.<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

\u201cWe also opposed the last-minute FSSAI proposal of including \u2018positive nutrients\u2019 in the label. We are certain that it will only give industry a chance to claim its bad food as good food and mislead the consumer. These recent consultations were like one-step forward and two-steps backwards. We are far behind where we were in <\/strong>2018<\/strong> and we do not know which way it will go,\u201d said Khurana.<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

The analysis outlines different types of front-of-pack labelling systems adopted in several countries and their limitations and effectiveness to inform consumers and change towards healthier food choices. In particular, it presents characteristics of \u2018warning\u2019 labels and how based on evidence they have been the choice of several countries in the last five years.<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

It also recommends what should be done in the case of India. For example, nutrient specific and symbol-based \u2018warning\u2019 labels should be adopted. Israel\u2019s \u2018warning\u2019 label, which is symbol-based. is better than that of Chile that only has text. It will help transcend the barriers of language and illiteracy.<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

\u201cIf the government is serious to fight obesity and diet-related NCD epidemic, then it should soon make a law to make front-of-pack labelling mandatory. It should opt for symbol-based \u2018warning\u2019 label. FSSAI has experience of logos that depict vegetarian and non-vegetarian food and is aware how successful and effective such a label can be,\u201d says Narain.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

The CSE analysis recommends that in addition to calories, nutrients which are most useful for consumers to know should be displayed. These include salt, total sugar and total fat (in addition to saturated fat, if not instead of them). The thresholds proposed by FSSAI in its <\/strong>2018 <\/strong>draft should be adopted and if new thresholds are developed, they should be in line with best practices from the world. These limits should be set in the interest of consumers and not as per convenience of the industry. \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New CSE analysis on food labelling says existing nutrition information on food\u00a0packs confuses consumers, does not let them know how bad their food is Despite years of discussions and delays, India remains far away from a simple and effective labelling system to \u2018warn\u2019 consumers about harmful levels of fat, salt and sugar hiding in ultra-processed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":69827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[33],"class_list":["post-69826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-81","tag-breaking"],"views":843,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.himshimlalive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.himshimlalive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.himshimlalive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.himshimlalive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.himshimlalive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=69826"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.himshimlalive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69830,"href":"https:\/\/www.himshimlalive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69826\/revisions\/69830"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.himshimlalive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/69827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.himshimlalive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=69826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.himshimlalive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=69826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.himshimlalive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=69826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}