Health and nutrition advocacy bodies call for 'warning' on unhealthy food products

Representative image.

Twenty-two Indian public health and consumer organisations have come together to oppose India’s apex food safety regulator’s plan to label ultra-processed foods with ‘Health Star Rating’, which they said is designed to mislead and confuse consumers.

The Food Safety and Standards Control Authority of India (FSSAI) is planning to introduce HSR on packaged and processed food products, saying it is aimed at guiding consumers to opt for healthy food and reduce India’s growing burden of lifestyle diseases.

Under the proposed HSR format, packaged food items based on salt, sugar and fat content would be given one to five stars and the rating would be printed on the front of the package.

However, the jointly endorsed position statement released by health and nutrition advocacy organisation on May 4 called for a mandatory ‘warning’ label to inform the consumer about these unhealthy and ultra-processed food products, which are high in salt, sugar or fats and can negatively impact the health of children and adults.

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“We at NAPi, believe that FSSAI has gone wrong both in its approach and the decision to include HSR on unhealthy food and drink products. We are pleased to share that prominent public health and consumer bodies from across the country have come together against this irresponsible move,” said Dr Arun Gupta, convener, Nutrition Advocacy in Public Interest (NAPi), while presenting the position statement.

Dr K Srinath Reddy, President of the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) said that star ratings can be misleading, as they do not clearly inform the consumer whether the rating is for specific constituents, taste or shelf life.

“The consumer’s right to judge the health risks posed by any packaged food product is not served by the star ratings,” he said.

Dr Vandana Prasad, community paediatrician with the Public Health Resource Network stressed that individual components like fibre, fruit, vegetable or nuts added to a fundamentally unhealthy food product in the name of positive nutrients, may give a false impression of the food being healthy which can lead to overconsumption of such food products.

“Since there is stronger evidence that warning labels are able to impact consumer behaviour towards healthier diets, it appears that the food industry is being able to influence decision making through the stakeholder consultations where it occupies a majority status,” added Prasad.

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On its part, FSSAI has been arguing that HSR on front of the open labelling of packaged food products is being adopted by a survey carried out by Indian Institute of Management, Ahmadabad but experts said that there were several methodological flaws in the study.