Dear Health Minister,

Save people from harmful packaged food: Print Warning On Unhealthy Food Products

To reduce the impact of unhealthy food products on health, the Food and Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has initiated the model of Front of Packing Label (FOPL) of packaged food products. FSSAI has decided issue a draft regulation to include ‘Health Star Rating' (HSR). Food product will get a half to 5 Stars depending on its contents. 

We believe that this is being done under pressure from the ultra-processed food industry, who earlier opposed a traffic light label and now happy with Stars. 

Minutes of the meeting show that FSSAI has chosen to ignore public health and consumer interest by giving undue importance to the opinion of large food processing industries. 

Scientific evidence favours that unhealthy foods be given a Warning Label, which has demonstrated to reduce consumption of unhealthy food products. Warning labels are quick to understand and impact on consumption.

Link: https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003015 

Realizing the importance of this issue, many countries have introduced mandatory warning labels including Chile, Peru, Israel, Mexico, Uruguay, and soon to be introduced in Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, and Venezuela.

The Scientific evidence does not support Health Stars on food products. 

Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jhn.12758 

Scientists believe that these ultra-processed foods are causing many non communicable diseases ( NCDs) including cancer. 

Link: https://www.napiindia.in/docs/Concept-Note-for-regulating-UPF.pdf 

We have been eating healthy and nutritious foods, real and unprocessed, our diet has always been very balanced. But in the recent past, the trend of ultra-processed foods has increased and especially markets are flooded with ultra-processed foods and these are aggressively marketed affecting the health of both children and adults.

Link https://www.ijsr.net/archive/v5i9/ART20161741.pdf 

It’s notable that companies use excessive amounts of sugar, salt (sodium) and saturated fats to entice customers and make children get addicted to these products. In our country, diabetes, blood pressure, kidney and liver diseases are becoming common due to excess  of sugar, salt/sodium and saturated fats in the food. 

People lack such awareness and unknowingly consuming these harmful food items. Therefore it is the responsibility of the government to tell people which food products are safe to eat and which are not.  If such a warning is posted on foods products having excess of sugar, salt or saturated fats beyond a WHO’s prescribed threshold limit, consumers will be able to learn and make informed decisions about their food purchase and consumption. 

Today, when the country's food regulatory body is taking a decision in this regard, the health of the people of the country should be the first priority and not the profit of the companies. 

Therefore, we the people of India, consuming the food products available in our market, would like you to :

1. Ask FSSAI, to make decisions without the involvement of food industry or its front groups.

2. Ensure that packaged food products have warning labels expressing nutrients of concern if they are in excess to be harmful.