A new laboratory analysis by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) on commonly-available popular processed foods has set the warning bells tolling. The study found that most packaged food and fast food items being sold in India contained dangerously high levels of salt and fat in them – the levels have been found to be much higher than the thresholds set by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), but not notified.
The tests were conducted by CSE’s Environment Monitoring Laboratory (EML), which is well known for its earlier findings on food products consumed in India (such as pesticides in soft drinks, potassium bromate in bread, antibiotics in honey and chicken, etc.)
In the current study, the EML has tested salt, fat, trans-fats and carbohydrates in 33 popular junk foods, which include 14 samples of chips, namkeen, instant noodles and instant soup and 19 samples of burgers, fries, fried chicken, pizza, sandwiches and wraps. These samples were collected from grocery stores and fast food outlets in Delhi and are known to be widely sold and consumed across the country.
A saga of drafts and committees
Releasing the study results here today, CSE director general Sunita Narain said, “We have found dangerously high levels of salt and fat in all the packaged food and fast food samples that we tested.”
“We consumers have the right to know what is contained in the package. But our food regulator, the FSSAI, is dragging its feet and has not notified its own draft labelling regulation. This is clearly because of pressure from the powerful food industry. This is not acceptable. This is compromising our right to know and our right to health,” she added.
Narain’s comment referred to the delay in notifying the draft Food Safety Standards, (Labelling and Display) Regulations – which has been in preparation since 2013. Over the six years, the FSSAI has constituted committee after committee, and in 2018, a final draft was issued; this was then revised, and another 2019 final draft was put out for public comments.
CSE has found that the 2019 draft, prepared by a committee headed by B Sesikeran, former director, National Institute of Nutrition, and trustee of the global big food industry lobby group, International Life Sciences Institute, was much compromised and diluted. Its report had also not been made public by FSSAI.
Narain stated, “But even this final draft remains a draft. Clearly, our right to know and our right to health is not a priority.”
Amit Khurana, programme director, food safety and toxins team, CSE, said, “Are we really serious about limiting our burden of obesity, diabetes and heart diseases? The FSSAI’s attitude indicates otherwise.”
“Junk foods and their consumption are the primary contributors to this huge burden of non-communicable lifestyle diseases that India is now struggling with. We cannot afford to ignore the warning that the CSE lab study has sounded,” he added.
RDA exhausted
CSE has further analysed the findings of the laboratory study to understand how much of our Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) is used (or exhausted) by eating these foods.
The concept of RDA is well established globally and is used to understand how much of any nutrient (salt, sugar, fat) should be consumed from different meals. Most packaged food falls into the snack category, and the RDA of this food is, therefore, a proportion of our daily intake.
Khurana said, “If we say that we have three meals and two snacks in a day, each snack must not add up to more than 10 per cent of the RDA.”
What we found?
In the category chips and namkeen, among all the brands tested, Too Yumm Multigrain Chips (which Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli advertises as a smart snack) had the maximum salt content - 1g in 30g of chips. In other words, 30g of this gives double the day’s allowance of salt from a snack.
Among namkeens, Haldiram’s Classic Nut Crackers scored high on the salt content. Instant noodles and soups (Maggi and Knorr products were tested) also revealed very high salt levels – so did samples of burgers (McDonald’s, Burger King), pizzas (Domino’s, Pizza Hut), and sandwiches (Subway).
#Markitred
CSE researchers pointed out that the FSSAI’s July 2019 much-diluted draft notification included the provision for labelling food, based on thresholds.
These thresholds, provided in an annexure to the draft regulations (2018 and 2019), give the amounts of fat and salt which are allowed in 100g/ml of packaged food. Above this threshold, food has to be labelled red.
CSE has taken the threshold provided in the 2018 and 2019 drafts and applied it to the food that it tested.
What it found from the results is not surprising at all – that all this food needs to be marked red. This is clearly why the powerful food industry is opposing this notification.
Added sugar
In the case of added sugar, the product would be labelled red if the energy provided by the added sugar is more than 10 per cent of the energy provided by 100g of the product. In the 2018 draft, the notification had used sugar and not added sugar.
“The draft 2019 regulation introduced added sugar, but has taken the same threshold as the one for total sugar (50g/day). This is clearly a compromise to appease the powerful beverage and juice industry, but will compromise our health instead,” pointed out CSE researchers.
Mislabelling of transfats
Transfats are known to be deadly – therefore, they need to be completely eliminated in our foods because they are indicted for heart diseases.
Mrinal Mallik, head, CSE lab, said that the results show that in almost all the food CSE tested, companies had under-reported the amount of transfats in their products, and added that that should not be allowed.
The way ahead
Narain lay down the action that is required. She said, “The FSSAI has prevaricated and delayed action for far too long on this matter. In the past six years, there have been three committees to finalise this draft.”
“The 2018 draft was weakened and diluted, and now even this much-compromised 2019 draft has not been notified. It is clear that the powerful food industry is not satisfied and wants to weaken the draft further,” she added.
“Our study shows why they are worried. All their most popular foods would be labelled red. We would know and we would protect the health of our children. This is not in the industry’s interest,” Narain said.
She added, “It is clear that the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and FSSAI must decide on whose side they are: industry or public health. If the stakes are high for industry, they are even higher for public health.”
