The nutrition labelling system for food packets recommended by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) will not only fail to enable consumers to make healthy choices but also mislead them about their nutritional value, warned experts who have called for the need to “insulate” policy making from the influence of the food industry.
In a meeting in February, the FSSAI decided that when it prepares its draft regulations for a Front of Package Labelling (FoPL) system, it will propose the health star rating system, which rates the overall nutritional profile of packaged food and assigns it a rating from half a star to five stars. The decision was based on an Indian Institute of Management (IIM)-Ahmedabad study commissioned by the FSSAI. The move has upset public health experts who favour the warning label system such as a black-and-white stop symbol used in Chile or the red warning symbol in Israel for each of the three ingredients — salt, sugar and fat.
“Warning signs educate consumers about harmful ingredients present in a food product and help them make healthy choices. They also give a repetitive educational message so that even for domestic cooking or buying street food that warning bell goes off. This educational component of a properly constructed warning system is missing in the health star[s] system, which are like a movie rating system and are of no use,” said K. Srinath Reddy, president, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), at a press conference.
