Political Parties Ask For Strong FOPL To Regulate Packaged Foods
Ramdas Athawale, Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, forwarded the People’s Vigilance Committee for Human Rights (PVCHR)’s letter to the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare requesting a strong FOPL regulation for improving the health of #women, #children, and #youth with respect to malnutrition, according to #WHO standards. PVCHR’s campaign for #FOPL is working to highlight the importance of consumer-friendly warning labels that address the growing burden of non-communicable diseases in #India. The campaign brings together, doctors, public #health experts, human rights defenders, faith leaders and political parties.
Leaders from BJP, SP, Congress, BSP and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) in a public dialogue on children’s nutritional rights and packaged food labelling to address the double burden of malnutrition in India. They pledged to include front-on-package labelling (FOPL) in their manifestos for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election. BJP and Samajwadi Party have incorporated it in its election manifesto as promised by them.
“We support PVCHR’s campaign for FOPL regulation in India following the standard set by the World Health Organization for packaged food so that children can be protected from malnutrition, which is very crucial to our country’s development,” wrote Aradhana Mishra ‘Mona’, Congress Legislature Party leader, UP Assembly supporting the campaign.
Participating in the public dialogue through zoom. AK Sharma, MLC, Vice President, UP BJP, said, “FOPL you might have noted or discussed, perhaps come out with better suggestions. But my own views is that it is necessary to have proper labelling so that consumers, parents, users are informed and there is no doubt that we all need to work in the directions of ensuring and creating a society, this methods should become a matter of habit.”
“Packaged foods should be immediately regulated. I promise through this platform whatever resolution you would pass, we endorse it. If the situation changes post to the assembly elections and our party’s government is formed, then we will make efforts from the Uttar Pradesh Government to implement FOPL, though it’s matter of the Centre. Whatever you would suggest, we will include it in our party’s election manifesto,” emphatically put forth Manoj Rai Dhoopchandi, spokesperson, Samajwadi Party & Ex Minister, UP Government
Congress leader, Rajesh Mishra, former MP, Head, UP Election Campaign Committee, said in the public dialogue “Do give us the proposal on FOPL. We will talk to Priyanka ji, give her the proposal, and we will stick to it regardless of where we stand in the Uttar Pradesh elections or the national elections. If the Congress government is formed following the Lok Sabha elections in 2024, we will definitely implement the FOPL.”
However, the Ajagara MLA, Kailash Nath Sonkar who belongs to Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) said, “I would like to pay attention to the fact that the institutions that work with education will succeed first, and then FOPL will definitely succeed.”
Appreciating PVCHR’s campaign, Shashi Pratap Singh, Spokesperson, SBSP said, “The awareness programme which PVHCR is trying to build up its really commendable. In this mission, especially I and including all those sitting in the podium are not simply talking about their party only, everyone will cooperate and walk wherever you say, to flag your words.”
Lalji Desai, National Organiser, Congress Seva Dal said, “Packaged food is a compulsion, accepting it and bringing transparency into it is a good thing.”
Taking the cue, Anil Yadav from Congress said, “FOPL concerns not only children from UP but the entire nation so the Government needs to be committed towards it as its matter of their future so labelling is important, I will also speak with our leader about this, and this becomes a part of our party manifesto and taken up during assembly elections.”
Leading the public dialogue, Vandana Shah, Regional Director of South Asia Programs for the Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI) who led successful ‘Tobacco Free kid campaign’ said, “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.”
Elaborating on FOPL, she added, “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 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.”
Chile mandates that packaged foods and beverages high in calories, sugar, sodium, or saturated fat, and exceeding set thresholds for these nutrients and/or overall calorie content must be labelled with high-in warning labels – black octagon(s) with the words high-in sugar, sodium, saturated fat, and/or calories, as applicable.
In comparison, in India, the food regulator, Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) has been deliberating on the FOPL issue since 2013 but is yet to frame a policy for a strong FOPL
While the India’s food regulator, the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI), has been debating FOPL since 2013, it has yet to formulate a strong policy for addressing it. The hope is non-profit organizations such as PVCHR and other civil society organizations’ campaigns will add impetus for it to be implemented.
#PVCHR #FoPL #food
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