'Junk Food Causing Severe Public Health Crisis In India'
By Rajiv Shah*
A new report titled 'The Junk Push: Rising Consumption of Ultra-processed foods in India - Policy, Politics and Reality' has called upon the Government of India to check the increasingly high consumption of High Fat Sugar or Salt (HFSS) foods or ultra-processed foods (UPF), commonly known as junk food.
Prepared by Nutrition Advocacy in Public Interest (NAPi) and Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India (BPNI) and authored by Dr Arun Gupta, Nupur Bidla and Reema Dutta, the report further stated that owing to the fear of depressing sales in the west, transnational food corporations descended fast into India in the 1990s as the markets opened up.
India faces a severe public health crisis of obesity and diabetes as per the report. As the 2023 ICMR-INDIAB (Indian Council of Medical Research-India Diabetes) study shows, there are 100 million cases of diabetes and one in every four individuals is either suffering from diabetes or is pre-diabetic or obese.
The Government of India had set a target to halt the rise of obesity and diabetes by 2025, which seems nowhere in sight, the report added. However, new data collected via Poshan tracker revealed that 43 lakh children under the age of five years are obese or overweight, which is six per cent of the total number of children tracked. One of the major underlying factors is increasing consumption of junk foods triggered by food industry’s pervasive advertising and promotional techniques to increase sales.
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| Research says consuming junk food makes a person eat more (Representational image) |
Citing a World Health Organisation (WHO) India study, the report stated retail sale of ultra-processed foods in India grew at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.37 per cent between 2011 and 2021. This makes it evident that the market has penetrated the poor sections of society.
Scientific research has found that consuming junk food makes a person eat more, consume about 500 excess calories per day and gain weight by approximately 900 grams in two weeks. Studies also found that a ten per cent increase in consumption of UPFs could increase the risk of diabetes by 15 per cent and higher premature mortality due to cardiovascular diseases.
The report further added increasing consumption of UPFs (meaning more than 10 per cent vs less than four per cent of daily diet) has a devastating impact on human health in India and worldwide, with a higher risk of cardiovascular diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, depression and mortality.
Pointing out that the government committed to tackle the burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and put in place a National Multisectoral Action Plan (NMAP) for Prevention and Control of Common NCDs (2017-22) but the gaps remain. This is why there's a need for preventive legal frameworks to control advertising and labeling to be enforced to cut down the consumption of junk foods.
"Existing regulatory policies remain ineffective to minimise any advertisements of junk foods, which are mostly misleading and especially directed at children and adolescents,” said Convenor of NAPi Dr Arun Gupta during the release of the report.
He added, “None of the legal frameworks or guidelines in India have the potential to stop most of the misleading advertisements of pre-packaged junk or HFSS foods, or to ban misleading claims or warn people about the risks to health. The intent that there shall be no ‘misleading advertisement’ needs a clearly-worded law.”
The report provides evidence from 43 junk food advertisements, which it said is just the tip of the iceberg. These advertisements commonly relied on celebrity endorsements, emotional appeals, unsubstantiated health claims and targeted children. None of the advertisements provided the 'most important information' as demanded by the Consumer Protection Act 2019, for a food product, the amount of sugar, salt or saturated fat in it. Therefore, NAPi believes these ads are misleading.
Nupur Bidla, a social scientist and member of NAPi said, "You pick up any advertised pre-packaged food product, invariably you will find it HFSS and ultra-processed in nature, containing all kinds of additives, colours, flavours and emulsifiers. As per an unpublished WHO India study, more than 2,00,000 such advertisements are flashed each month just on 10 select channels. These advertisements target children, seek parental approval, use celebrities, project junk foods as healthy. It is because of such pervasive and aggressive marketing techniques, we call it The Junk Push”.
Senior advocate in the Supreme Court of India Chander Uday Singh said, "A stronger regulatory framework is needed in order to control pernicious marketing and advertising that is undoing the efforts of the government to combat obesity, diabetes, and the wholly avoidable toll on human health and lives. And it is entirely possible for Parliament to enact suitable legislation for this purpose, in order to balance the citizens’ right to life and health against the businessman’s right to commercial free speech."
He stressed this is an urgent necessity, especially in view of the rampant and all-pervasive advertising that is making India the unhealthiest nation in the world.
According to PHFI Professor Dr K Srinath Reddy, "Junk food offers very poor balance of the nutrients which the body needs for growth, health and well-being while loading us with high levels of salt, sugar, unhealthy fats and chemical additives. While science is clear on why these foods should be excluded from our regular diets, their consumption is rising to alarming levels because of commercial drivers."
He added, "Knowledge about the harm caused by these foods is inadequate in the public domain while misleading claims and high pitched advertising are driving increasing addiction to these products. This Junk Push needs to be countered by sharing factual information on health harms and creating public demand for strong regulatory measures."
Another policy missing the attention of the policymakers is also a recommendation of the NMAP, i.e., an “interpretive” front of the packet label (FOPL), the report underlined. This can act as a warning to consumers before they decide to purchase and eat.
Evidence generated in India, and globally, suggests that “warning label” works more effectively. FOPL such as High in Sugar/Salt or saturated fat on the FOPL of the junk food is likely to reduce consumption. Many countries in Latin America have already shown that such policies are working.
Renowned epidemiologist and researcher Prof HPS Sachdev said, "Policy-making on Front of Pack Labelling has not been free from food industry involvement, which led to a flawed policy of health star rating on junk foods. Food industry continues to push for self-regulation, which does not work as the 22-country study tells us. Moreover, food and nutrition policy development should be completely devoid of conflict of interest such as in Israel."
While WHO and UNICEF opined that policies need to be mandatory and policy development should be led by governments, without involving the food industry, it is almost an year that FSSAI is sitting on the draft notification on FOPL pending its finalisation, the report stated. Ensuring a high GST slab on junk food sales to discourage people from buying them is yet another policy that aims at reducing consumption.
Speaking to reporters renowned ecologist Dr Vandana Shiva said, “The non-communicable chronic disease burden is related primarily to junk food /ultra-processed food, which is emerging as a pandemic and a health emergency. Protecting and promoting healthy, diverse food and regulating ultra-processed food is the duty of the government. The report provides timely policy inputs. Industrially and chemically-produced food products are destructive of our food cultures and health of the people. They also destroy the planet while ecological regenerative food systems contribute to a healthy planet and healthy people.”
Considering the enormity of public health crisis due to NCDs, it is an imperative that India should work towards a clear objective to halt the rise of junk food consumption. This will act as a logical step to halt obesity and diabetes by 2030 or 2035, if not 2025, the report added, making specific recommendations to bridge the gaps.
Low hanging fruits
To reduce exposure of harmful marketing and consumption of junk foods, food companies or their front organisations or individuals supported by them, should not be part of the decision making to develop a policy.
The MoHFW and FSSAI may urgently establish the thresholds of nutrients of concern i.e. sugars, salt and saturated fats that would guide the interpretive FOPL (warning label) for all junk foods and marketing restrictions.
The MoHFW and FSSAI may come up with an “interpretive FOPL” (warning label) as recommended in the NMAP.
A Bill in the Parliament
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the Ministry of Law and Justice may frame a Bill for 'Prevention of NCDs to halt the rise of diabetes and obesity in India' with the objectives to define healthy foods and junk foods (UPF, HFSS), and impose reasonable restrictions on the marketing and advertising of junk foods especially to children up to 18 years.
Reasonable restrictions could include every medium of communication, sponsorship in schools or gifts for students, etc. Television advertisements of junk foods may be prohibited from 6 am to 10 pm.
Amendments to existing regulations
As in the case of food for infant, the MoIB may also amend the Cable Television Networks Regulation (Amendment) Act 2000; Rule 7 (2)(viii) to include ban on advertisements that directly or indirectly promote HFSS/Junk food.
The Ministry of Consumers Affairs may consider an amendment to CCPA guidelines 2022 section 8 and 9 making it explicit to ban advertisements of HFSS foods by removal of a proviso for another law.
Miscellaneous actions
An inter-ministerial group may frame guideline to direct schools, hospitals, prisons and other public service offices/areas not to serve HFSS/ junk food and engage in any kind of food industry sponsorship.
The GST council may consider the highest GST slab for UPFs and other junk food, similar to a “sin” tax for cola drinks.
A broader coalition of academic and civil society organisations without any conflicts of interest may assist the Government of India in achieving the targets set.
* The writer is Editor of Counterview. A version of this article first appeared here.
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