#FOPL does not harm the industry: Vandana Shah

 

Vandana Shah, Director of South Asia Programs for the Global Health Advocacy Incubator in  Public Dialogue on Children’s Nutritional rights and Package food Labelling on 2 December,2021 at Diamond Hotel, #Varanasi

Honourable leaders present, brothers and sisters, let me share with you today the work being done on the policies of packaged foods around the world, and during the COVID it was told that those suffering from non-communicable disease like diabetes suffered the most. India used to have Communicable Diseases, but nowadays NCDs have become more prevalent due to COVID.  As Dr Arvind Pratap explained, India has a unique situation in the world that is found in very poor and developing countries that there is ‘Double Burden’ as the nation was struggling against poverty and starvation, so now the burden of obesity among our children has been added. There is a phenomenon referred to as the ‘Triple Burden on Nutrition’ in the world as it is in India where, earlier children were dying from hunger and now  afflicted with diabetes due to obesity. This is a very serious issue, resulting from the fact that children were not getting adequate food previously, and presently they are getting packaged foods that are high in sugar, salt, and fat. This double burden of malnutrition is the focus of UNICEF and other organizations worldwide. Despite the fact that we worked on starvation and still could not eradicate it, the problem of obesity started in our country. The Ministry of Health has released its data last week which shows the number of children under the age of 5 who are obese. These figures are from a house-to-house survey conducted during the National Family Health Survey (NFHS), done five years ago when childhood obesity figures were not so high. Children under five were not obese when NFHS4 was conducted. In every state except Tamil Nadu and Goa, obesity is horribly high for whatever reason. According to worldwide research in the last five years, obesity is a major reason for children eating packaged food in India. Here I want to reiterate what Dr Arvind Pratap said that we are not against packaged food. In a society where women go to work more often, packaged foods are necessary, but these foods should remain sugary, salty, and fat-free. There are also official statistics released by the Ministry of Health that show that obesity rates among mothers are rising dramatically. The nutritional status of the whole family is deteriorating. There is no policy or regulation regarding packaged foods and that is why we in India are focusing on FOPL regulations.

What are the main causes of poor nutrition? Why do children suffer from poor nutrition? First of all, the government has done a lot of work on children's nutrition, but the introduction of packaged food has caused a lot of disruption that we are now seeing obesity among children younger than five. In India, childhood obesity is now becoming a common phenomenon what we used to see in America earlier where children younger than 10 years suffer from Type 2 Diabetes but previously they suffered from Type 1 diabetes. The second reason is the quality of the food. On TV and on their mobile phones, children watch advertisements for packaged food, so they want to eat them, but they have very poor nutrition, and it is high in sugar, salt, and fat, which we are seeing shift in India's food market. Earlier, it was made in the home, but now packaged foods are a common occurrence. Packaged food is consumed all over the world, but it should not harm you. Packaged foods are ultra-processed and they contain high levels of salt, sugar, and fat. The most worrying thing is that even the remotest villages of India have packaged foods today. For those who don't get food, they are given crunchy, crispy chips or biscuits with little nutritional value. As a result of consuming large amounts of salt, sugar, and fat, the children of the house suffer from several diseases. There has been tremendous growth in the food processing market of India, which is the second largest food processing market after China. Exactly what are all these measures discussed all over the world, packaged foods are so heavily marketed, so what should be done, which is a policy which the Indian Government is considering. Food Safety Authority of India should consider and examine this policy, known as Front of Package Labelling (FOPL)). Now you will see the chips packet, the label on the back of which many numbers are written, they will not be able to read them even after 15 minutes, even a doctor will not understand their significance. What is good and what is not. FOPL, which is being considered around the world, is proving to be very successful, and it should be very simple to implement. It hardly takes a person six seconds to read a packet when they buy it.

The FOPL policy aims to inform the consumer in a very simple way whether the food is hazardous to them or not, whether it contains more salt, sugar, and oil. If there is more salt, sugar, or fat in the product, one label will be inserted, which the food industry is resisting. Thus, it is being seen in the countries that the industry reformulates the food and reduces salt, sugar, and fat. FOPL is being adopted by a number of countries because industry wants to sell its products. Now, there are two types of labels in the world, one interpretative and the other reductive. The interpretative label tells us instantly whether or not you want to buy the product, whether it contains more sugar, salt, and fat. There are clear guidelines from WHO that FOPL should be interpretative; the consumer should read the FOPL within 6 seconds and decide whether or not to buy it for their child. Another type of label that is emerging around the world is the warning label. In the same way, Lenin ji was telling you like a cigarette packet, it has a clear warning label saying it is harmful to you, with pictures of cancer, with pictures of lungs, everything is understandable, similarly the warning label on food also tells in a very clear way.

If the product contains more salt and there is a warning label, then if you have high blood pressure you won't buy that product, if the product contains sugar, then if you have diabetes or if you are obese you won't buy it. In the case of fat with a warning label, if you have heart disease, you won't buy that product. If it contains all the three with warning labels then you don’t buy the product, you understand it in 6 seconds. You won't have the time to read it for 15 minutes. You will decide whether to buy chips or juice in 6 to 10 seconds. In South America, most countries have adopted warning labels style front of package labelling (FOPL), and Chile is the first country to adopt and produce such labels. It has been scientifically proven that obesity among children is very low. Diabetes has decreased, and packaged food manufacturers have reformulated their products to make them healthier. We are basically looking at warning labels front of package labelling (FOPL) if there is a clear indication that it has more salt, more sugar, more fat, the industry will understand in 10 seconds and make a buying decision based on it. Changing the character of the product will make it healthier since the industry does not want to harm consumers. The research in Chile and in Brazil has also found that FOPL does not harm the industry because if the rule is applied to the industry, then the entire industry reformulates itself. Which number should be on that label? Salt is better for you, sugar is better for you, and how much oil is better for you. Basically WHO's regional office researching the food of all of India has given clear limits as to how much salt should be used in the food, how much sugar, and how much oil. All of the countries that have adopted warning label policies have incorporated WHO guidelines. Food policy experts around the world believe that there will be less non communicable diseases (NCDs) if the warning labels of style and SEARO labels of #WHO limits were used. Currently, those with NCDs are under more stress from #COVID and their recovery seems to have taken a long time. In bringing forward a strong FOPL in India, we can save the lives of children, we can be a leader in healthcare for the world, as a result, it is requested that you support FOPL. Thank you very much, you came here, you heard this so leisurely because India is at a crucial point in its development. #FSSAI will decide this policy in Delhi, and the result will be your cooperation on behalf of India's children. Thank you very much.