Dr Prabhakar Tiwari, CMHO while addressing the participants of the State Consultation on 'Importance of FoPL in Addressing the NCDs' at the Institute of Hotel Management, Bhopal on 17th August, 2023 informed that in every 2 seconds someone aged 30 to 70 years dies prematurely from non- communicable diseases (NCDs) worldwide. In India also number of NCD related deaths are rising over the years. He further said that high blood sugar, high blood pressure, abnormal serum lipids, higher waist to hip ration and abnormal lung functions are some of major causes of such deaths. He advised that the most important ways of reducing deaths from NCDs is to control the risk factors that lead to their development. These include maintaining an active lifestyle and consuming a healthy diet.
This State level consultation was organized jointly by CUTS international- Jaipur , National Centre for Human Settlements & Environment (NCHSE) and Institute of Hotel Management (IHM) to sensitise and educate the stakeholders within the state on FoPL and thereby create a group of enlightened stakeholders for generating demand for earlier notification of the FoPL regulation in the country. Issues regarding impact of highly processed packaged foods on human health, starting from children to senior citizens, role of FoPL in reducing NCDs were discussed in details by the experts.
Deepak Saxena, Associate Director, CUTS International said that in India, 1 out of 4 persons are at a risk of dying from a non-communicable disease (NCD) before they reach the age of 70.
He pointed out that people with pre-existing NCDs & comorbidities were proved more vulnerable towards Covid 19. The issue of NCD burden is directly linked to excessive consumption of processed food that are high in sugar, salt and saturated fats. He pointed out that 68% of Indian ultra-processed foods have excess sugar, salt and Fat (SSF).
In order to tackle the growing burden of NCDs, the Food Safety Standards Authority India (FSSAI) published draft regulation for Front of Pack Warning Labels (FOPL) several times seeking opinion of stakeholders for its acceptance. He presented the comparison between the Back-Of-Pack (Vs) Front-Of-Pack Nutrition Labels as well the best examples of FoPL adopted in other countries successfully. He presented the process of development of FoPL in India since 2014 and pointed out that it is still under development.
In September 2022, FSSAI announced that it plans to go ahead with the 'Indian Nutrition Rating' (INR) on a voluntary basis by introducing the draft notification - Food Safety and Standards (Labelling & Display) Amendment Regulations, 2022.