For food manufacturers, misleading claims are a way of marketing in India. It's time the government made the regulations stringent and brought about necessary changes in its approach towards food labelling and claims
AS NANDINI Shah, a health-conscious young working mother in New Delhi, enters a supermarket, she knows exactly what to buy. She picks Bournvita for her 11-year-old son and Fortune vivo Diabetes Care Oil for her husband. “Bournvita will help build stamina in my son who has interest in sports, and the oil can help manage diabetes of my husband,” she says. Deepti Khanna, a college student from a posh South Delhi locality, carefully reads nutrition facts on the label before buying grocery items. “I prefer NutriChoice Essentials Oats cookies and Sunfeast Farmlite Digestive over other biscuits as they have a high fibre content, are made out of whole grains and have no added sugar,” says Khanna. She also buys ragi (finger millet) cookies for her diabetic father and Saffola Masala Oats for a healthy snack in the morning.
While Shah and Khanna are happy with their choices, the claims based on which they choose the products may not be entirely true. An analysis by Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) shows that several milk-food drinks come loaded with sugar. A serving of Bournvita contains enough sugar to exhaust 57 per cent of one’s daily quota as recommended by the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) in Hyderabad.
CSE researchers also spoke to health and nutrition experts to understand the authenticity of claims by food manufacturers, and the observations were startling.
This story is from the January 16, 2017 edition of Down To Earth.
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This story is from the January 16, 2017 edition of Down To Earth.
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