New Delhi, Aug 2 The Swadeshi Jagran Manch, the economic outfit wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, has thanked the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and Food and Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) for making mandatory the display of nutritional information on foods labels in bold.
Welcoming the decision, Ashwani Mahajan, National Co-Convener of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch, said the move of the government can go a long way in saving people from harmful food and significantly reducing the incidence of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) like diabetes, hypertension, cancer, kidney and liver diseases and many others.
Initially, FSSAI had decided to adopt a model of Front of Packing Label (FOPL) for food items and proposed a 'Health Star Rating' (HSR), but it drew criticism.
"The FSSAI, under pressure from the ultra-processed food industry, had then decided that each food should be rated from half to five stars. While taking the HSR decision, FSSAI had chosen to ignore consumer interest and has given undue importance to the opinion of large food processing industries," he said.
To protest it, in an online petition, the Manch urged the MoHFW and FSSAI to drop the idea of the HSR on FOPL and make it mandatory to give warnings, about salt (sodium), sugar and saturated fats, to curb the incidence of NCDs in the country, in the interest of public health.
It was highlighted that an HSR may not be able to explain the harmful contents of the packaged food; rather it may be misleading the consumers, as "stars" would be misunderstood as healthy, whereas food items may be highly harmful, Mahajan said.
The organisation told the government that companies use excessive amounts of sugar, salt (sodium) and saturated fats to entice customers and make children addicted to these products, and pointed out that it's not a mere coincidence that various NCDs are increasing like an epidemic, as the consumption of packaged food is increasing in the country, he said.
Mahajan said people lack awareness about the harmful contents of packaged food, but with nutritional information, they will be able to make more informed choices about their food.
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