Almost 3 out of 4 Indian packaged foods fail to display salt levels
NEW DELHI, April 13.
Large numbers of packaged food products
available in Indian stores fail to display nutritional data relating to the amount
of sodium present thus preventing consumers from making informed food choices,
reveals a survey conducted by The
George Institute for Global Health India. The study is part of a larger project which is
gathering the evidence to initiate a national salt reduction program in
India.
The survey conducted on 7,124 products – both national as well as
international brands -- available for
purchase in Indian supermarkets revealed
that only 26 per cent of packaged food displayed sodium content on the label,
thus non-compliant with the minimum labelling requirements of Codex – the
international body governing food labelling.
“The preliminary findings of the
study are a matter of great concern as consumers are eating progressively more
processed foods generally containing higher levels of salt. This is not good
for people in a country which is already projected to have an even larger NCD
burden in the coming future, ’’ says.Dr.
Vivekanand Jha
Executive Director, The George Institute
for Global Health-India.
The project
assumes significance in the light of the fact that the World Action on Salt and
Health (WASH) dedicated World Salt Awareness Week for the year 2014 from March
10 to 16 to the need for better
nutrition labelling in countries across the globe and has given the call for “Switch
the Salt’’. With people in India likely to consume much more packaged food over
the coming years, and with only 26 per cent labelling sodium, there is an urgent
need for full and effective food labelling.
The ongoing
project, being run by The George Institute for Global Health in collaboration
with the Centre for Chronic Disease Control , will gather information on
dietary salt intake levels among a sample of people as well as collect nutrient
information on packaged and outside food available for purchase. In addition,
the investigators will undertake a stakeholder survey with key representatives
from the food industry and the central government as well as hold focus groups
with consumers. The investigators aim to put together enough evidence to
develop a national salt reduction program for India, tailored to the specific
needs of the country.
The
implementation of this programme will involve three main elements: working with
the food industry to reformulate foods and meals, campaigns to change consumer
behaviour and efforts to change the food environment working in settings such
as schools, hospitals and the work place. The foods to focus on and population
groups to be targeted will be informed by the evidence gathered in this study.
Welcoming the fact that the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has now put in place
regulation defining minimum requirements for the labelling of the nutritional
content of packaged foods, Dr. Jha said “Comprehensive nutritional labelling on
packaged foods must involve sodium labelling as well as it will be one of the
steps that needs to be taken in order to make progress towards lowering death
and disability caused by high dietary salt intake. Other key areas are
community awarenesss as well as building
a strong national advisory committee to take the program forward.’’
For her part, Claire
Johnson, Research Associate, The George Institute for Global Health, says : “The
project aims to generate evidence to ensure that steps such as sodium content
being displayed on packaged food products becomes legally enforceable and also
to provide the evidence required to formulate a national salt reduction
programme in collaboration with key stakeholders.,’’
Based on
the findings of this study, The George Institute for Global Health India argues
that the achievement of sodium labelling in India will be an important part of
the country’s efforts to address the burgeoning non-communicable disease
burden. “The
enforcement of sodium regulations will help consumers by providing them with
the tools to make better choices. In
addition to delivering upon the base requirements of the Food Safety and
Standards Authority of India and Codex requirements, the Government should also consider the merits of introducing a
standard front-of-pack labelling system displaying sodium content,’’ said Dr.
Jha.
Major categories surveyed and sodium content in each
The following are the major
categories, the number of products in that category which were surveyed and the
percentage of products UNLABELLED for sodium.
The average across all
categories was 73.2% unlabelled.
There is no "acceptable
level" as it varies due to portion size and product. The key point is that
we are supposed to consume no more than 5gm salt, 2000mg sodium per day. If one
portion size in one product is unusually high, say 2.5gm, then it should ring
alarm bells that tell us we are consuming half our daily salt intake allowance
in one portion of one item of food.
The survey was undertaken at
major Indian supermarket chains and this included all major brands both
domestic and foreign.
एक टिप्पणी भेजें