Why are some packaged foods under the scanner?

The story so far:

A study of 432 convenience food products, in five categories — idli mixes, breakfast cereals, porridge mixes, beverage mixes, soup mixes — and extruded (‘puffed’ or ‘expanded’) snacks, has found that a majority of these ready-to-eat/packaged food products are high in carbohydrates.

Also read | What the Food Safety and Standards Act says

Who conducted the study?

The study, ‘Assessment of front and back of pack nutrition labels of selected convenience food products and snacks available in the Indian market’ by Shobana Shanmugam et al, was published in Plos One. Researchers with Chennai-based Madras Diabetes Research Foundation, the Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Nutrition and the University of Reading, the U.K. were involved. It aimed to evaluate the nutritional profiles and claims of selected convenience food products and snacks in the Indian market and also measured their healthiness by categorising them according to their nutrient profiles.

The nutritional profiling of the foods was conducted based on the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) claims regulations, after evaluating the nutritional information on the front and back of pack labels of the selected food items. Only the nutritional content claims related to protein, dietary fibre, fat, sugar and cholesterol were evaluated in this study. The healthiness was assessed using a nutritional traffic light system. The products were classified into ‘healthy’, ‘moderately healthy’ and ‘less healthy’ based on the fat, saturated fat, and sugar content. The study was funded by the Department of Science and Technology.

What did the study find?

In essence, the study found that while most of the products could fall under the ‘healthy’ or ‘moderately healthy’ categories, except extruded snacks, most of the products provided over 70% of the energy from carbohydrates, while extruded snacks provided over 47% of the energy from fat. The energy distribution from protein was found to be less than 15%.

All convenience food products that the study tested were rich in carbohydrate content. While beverage mixes had the highest carbohydrate content (35.5g to 95g/100g), extruded snacks had the highest total fat content (mean 28.3±7.5 g/100g), and the highest saturated fatty acid (SFA) content (mean 11.0±4.5 g/100g). The beverage mixes were found to be high in sugar content. The soup mixes had high sodium levels with poor protein and dietary fibre content. The idli mixes had high protein content and were largely sugar free. Breakfast cereals were found to have high dietary fibre.

The study also found that despite FSSAI’s packaging and labelling regulations requiring products to display the minimum nutritional information for energy, protein, carbohydrate, sugar, and total fat as “per 100 g” or “100 ml” or “per serving” of the product on the label, only certain breakfast cereals and some beverages widely disclosed the concept of per-serving information. Further, some products that claimed to contain whole grains did not display them in the ingredient list and these claims may be misleading to the consumer, it noted.

It pointed out that a clear labelling system would be a valuable tool for consumers to choose healthier products.

What are the issues around food labelling?

For years, activists have been advocating for front-of-pack labelling that has warning labels indicating high fat, sugar and sodium. “We want the warning labels to be specific, so, for instance, a customer with hypertension can avoid food labelled as ‘high sodium’ or a customer with diabetes can avoid high sugar foods,” said Vandana Prasad, a public health professional associated with the Public Health Resource Network.

Lead author of the paper and senior scientist at Madras Diabetes Research Foundation Dr. Shanmugam said the present labelling system was not uniform, and customers could find it hard to understand.

“Nutrition labelling in India is at an evolving stage and evidence of awareness and understanding of these labels by the Indian population is limited,” the study notes.

How are changing diet patterns affecting health?

As per the household consumption expenditure survey 2022-23, Indians are now spending more on processed food, beverages, and refreshments while reducing money spent on home-cooked food. Though there are subtle variations in rural and urban areas, the pattern is valid across both regions.

Experts have highlighted this changing diet is a huge contributing factor to the staggering burden of non-communicable diseases in the country. The Economic Survey of India this year, citing the Indian Council of Medical Research’s dietary guidelines, noted that 56.4% of the total disease burden in India is due to unhealthy diets.

Not only do excessive carbohydrates in the diet place a strain on the pancreas, therefore increasing one’s risk for type 2 diabetes, but other chemicals in processed food can increase the risk of ailments such as fatty liver as well, said Nihal Thomas, senior professor, Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Christian Medical College, Vellore. Dr. Shanmugam underlined the need for reformulation of packaged/processed food items to ensure they contain more proteins, alongside less fat and sodium. R.M. Anjana, managing director of Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre, Chennai, who was also part of the study, reiterated the importance of reading food labels and avoiding processed food as much as possible.