National Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue on Effective front of Package Labelling to ensure Children’s Right to Nutrition

National Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue on

Effective front of Package Labelling to ensure Children’s Right to Nutrition

On 16th May 2022, a national dialogue was organized in the presence of distinguished guests from all the sectors including media, political organisations, civil societies, business-owners and other community leaders at Gandhi Peace Foundation, Delhi. Everyone gathered to initiate a discussion on the issue of Packaged food and its harsh consequences on children.

Ms. Shruti Nagvanshi, Founder and Convener, Savitri Bai Phule Women Forum welcomed the guests on the dais and extended a warm welcome to all the participants. This was followed by a fruitful discussion. The speakers revealed alarming statistics and harsh realities on the issue. 61% of the total deaths in India happen due to non-communicable diseases and children suffer gravely due to malnutrition. The irony here is that many children also face problems due to obesity resulting in high blood pressure, diabetes and other related diseases. These facts directed the discussion to the solution i.e., mandatory front labelling on access fat, sugar and salt content on food packaging.

This was followed by a technical session moderated by Dr. Lenin Raghuvanshi, CEO PVCHR wherein he discussed about the increasing disease rate in the young population. Dr. Arvind Singh, Advisor, PIPAL shared his finding through the National Family Health Survey that girls in the age group 15-19 are suffering through various problems which further aggravates the problem during pregnancy and child-birth. The second speaker, Dr. Pulkit Mathur discussed about ultra-processed food and its association with obesity in children. He also mentioned about the sedentary lifestyle which most of us have adopted post-pandemic and its ill-effects on children and adult alike. There should be mass consumer awareness regarding high sugar, fat and salt content on packaged food.

Then, Pradeep Agarwal, Professor, Department of Community Medicine, AIIMS Rishikesh discussed with children present in the audience on their consumption habits, about packaged food which they consume generally. Most of them replied that they do not check the contents of the packaged food that they consume. Their parents were also unaware about the aspects of their child’s nutrition and consumption. This was followed by Dr. S.K. Singh, Professor and Head, Department of Survey Research and Data Analytics, International Institute of Population Science, Mumbai. He shared how the National Family Health Survey Commission conducts surveys and maintains its quality and trust through its rigorous study and research and he also shared about they conducted a survey on front labelling structure, design and visual appearance and shared some glimpses of the same with the audience.

Dr. Vandana Shah, Regional Director, South Asia Global Health Advocacy incubator shared her findings and views on how the lifestyle and consumption habits of Indian families is changing with time. With the increase in the no. of women workforce, parents get less time to cook and end up buying packaged food for children. She highlighted the importance of market regulation in this arena so that packaged food companies mention the contents on the label clearly.

Then Shri Ashok Thakur, Director National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd and In-charge of Kisan Morcha, BJP shared that in India, 15 million children are suffering through obesity. In India, food and beverage industry produces more than 34-million-ton items in market, even more than 50 percentage of children eat chips, cold drinks, chocolates and other food package items. There is a need for designing and framing effective policies and monitoring the implementation of such policies. In addition to this, he also threw light on the importance of awareness.

Then, the Business session was moderated by Mr. Abhishek Pratap, Advisor, GHAI in which Mr. Girish Gupta, President, All India Food Welfare Association, Delhi, Mr. Shailendra Dubey, Akhil Bhartiya Grahak Panchayat, New Delhi, Mr. Rohit Mohan, MD, Essar Bakery, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, Mr. Fakir Shau, MD, Demenbai Farmers Producer Company Limited and Mr. Ashish Bhati, National General Secretary, Bhartiya Vyapar Mandal shared their views and came to a consensus on a timeline to process this structure so that businesses can follow and also, if there will be some parameter on salt, fat and sugar so then they will try to follow the parameter on manufacturing of package food.

Last session was moderated and facilitated by Mr. Jeronino Almeida, wherein a panel from Civil Society organizations participated. Sanjay Singh, Jan Jan Jodo Abhiyan, Mr. D. Guruswamy, coordinator FIAN, Madurai, Mr. Vikram Pandey-Director Indian Roti Bank shared on how in small villages and towns, still many kinds of duplicate and hazardous packaged food is available and there is no labelling on the food packets, in some instances. So FSSAI, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India should start monitoring this industry and file the case and take necessary legal actions and even we, as community should take steps like writing a letter to FSSAI and other dignitaries on our observation and finding. In fact, there is false marketing by celebrities, we should report them and even raise our voice against such malfunctions. It all starts with our voice, out actions, our questions to the administration.

Further, as way forward, speakers and participants decided to keep sharing their thoughts and findings about this particular topic and to organize more meetings and dialogues in online and offline mode so that citizens from across the country become aware of this major concern.

Media Coverage Report National Dialogue on FOPL

https://healthofchidren.blogspot.com/2022/07/media-coverage-report-national-dialogue.html

National Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue on Effective front of Package Labelling to ensure Children’s Right to Nutrition

https://healthofchidren.blogspot.com/2022/10/national-multi-stakeholder-dialogue-on.html

All India Food Processors’ Association provided support for organizing 16 May, 2022 program

https://healthofchidren.blogspot.com/2022/10/all-india-food-processors-association.html

Solidarity of PECUC and NACG-EVAC India on #FoPL

https://healthofchidren.blogspot.com/2022/05/solidarity-of-pecuc-and-nacg-evac-india.html

Invitation: National Multi-stakeholder dialogue “Children’s Nutritional rights and Package food Labelling” on 16 May, 2022

https://healthofchidren.blogspot.com/2022/05/invitation-national-multi-stakeholder.html

Warning labels were the only FOPL that led to a significant change in consumer purchasing decision towards healthier products, Says Dr. S.K Singh

https://healthofchidren.blogspot.com/2023/04/warning-labels-were-only-fopl-that-led.html