Renu Jain, a software professional from Bengaluru and mother of two teenagers, tries hard to keep her children healthy. Last year, she saw a viral video by Revant Himatsingka, also known as “foodpharmer,” warning about high sugar content in Bournvita. This shocked her. “I have been giving Bournvita to my children for years. My mother gave it to me when I was little,” she said. “I thought it was a health drink to help children grow taller and run faster.”
Many families include popular health drinks in their monthly grocery lists. Health experts say these brands have been in India since the 1950s and have become known as “health drinks.”
Misleading Health Labels
In India, feeding a large and diverse population, many of whom are poor and unaware of food labeling, leads to weak public health policies. Even when policies are strong, their implementation is often poor, say civil society activists.
Dr. Arun Gupta, a pediatrician and convener of Nutrition Advocacy in Public Interest (NAPi), says that “health drink” labels often mislead consumers. Advertisers misrepresent the nutritional content of these drinks.
Last April, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights asked Mondelez International India, the maker of Bournvita, to withdraw all misleading advertisements, packaging, and labels. It took almost a year for the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to order e-commerce players to stop using the term “health drink for malt-based drinks” because Indian food laws do not define the term.
Concerns Over Food Safety
From high sugar in health drinks to added sugar in baby food and contaminated spices, Indians have much to worry about their food. FSSAI needs to ensure clear labeling, truthful advertisements, and safe food for everyone. FSSAI did not respond to ET’s emailed queries.
A recent NAPi report analyzed 50 advertisements of packaged foods and found all of them concealed critical nutrients like sugar, salt, and fat. The report also found that 23 of these ads used celebrities to market the products, with attractive visuals and manipulative claims to project a false image of health food. This is concerning, especially with rising rates of obesity, diabetes, and other diet-related illnesses in India. The recent Economic Survey flagged unhealthy food, social media, screen time, and sedentary habits as threats to public health and productivity.
Need for Stricter Regulations
In May 2023, the Advertisement Monitoring Committee of FSSAI reported 32 cases of misleading ads, but no action has been taken against these companies even after a year. Dr. Gupta says the FSSAI lacks a clear definition of misleading advertisements, making enforcement difficult. The Consumer Protection Act 2019 defines misleading ads but has not been applied to food items.
India ranks 67th out of 113 countries in the Global Food Security Index 2022 for the quality and safety of food. This is not a good score for a country aspiring to be a developed nation by 2047.
India is known as the diabetes capital of the world and may face an obesity epidemic. Non-communicable diseases account for 60% of deaths in India, according to a health ministry report.
Recent FSSAI Initiatives
FSSAI has recently taken steps to improve food safety. It ordered food companies to remove “100% fruit juices” claims from labels and ads of reconstituted fruit juices, which are misleading.
On July 6, FSSAI approved a proposal to display nutritional information on sugar, salt, and saturated fat in bold letters and bigger font size on food labels. This amendment aims to help consumers make healthier choices and combat non-communicable diseases. However, George Cheriyan, an expert on front-of-pack labeling (FoPL), calls this a “sabotage.” He argues that bold letters do not effectively reduce unhealthy food consumption and suggests using pictorial warning labels instead.
Testing food items is another challenge. The World Health Organization (WHO) called for eliminating industrially produced trans fat by 2023. FSSAI limited trans fat to 2% by January 2022. However, there are few testing facilities to verify these claims.
Ensuring Food Safety
FSSAI was created in 2006 to set standards for food safety and regulate its manufacture, storage, distribution, sale, and import. Almost two decades later, food companies still have too much power to market unhealthy food products. Many people are not aware of what they eat, according to the NAPi report.
The food regulator should ensure that everyone knows what they are eating and that the food is safe. This is crucial for protecting public health and ensuring that individuals can make informed choices about their diet.
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