Nutrition Labeling of Foods
Saleem Taqvi
Consumers are exposed to a whole range of processed foods
everyday. Those who do not want the inconvenience of preparing
their own meals are willing to pay a premium for foods
perceived to be of high quality and standard. One of their
main bases of comparison is the information on the labels
of these items. But our foods regulations in India are
not elaborate and stringent enough to make it mandatory
for the manufacturers to declare relevant information
on the label to guide purchase decisions of the consumers.
In United States a regulation related to nutrition labelling
was passed in 1973 but compliance was entirely voluntary
unless nutritional claims were made or nutrients are added
in the food products intended for sale. Although it was
a voluntary declaration, manufacturers in United States
and in other developed countries were complying with the
requirement because of competitive pressure. In 1990 Nutrition
Labelling and Education Act (NLEA) was passed and as a
consequence it is now mandatory that all foods marketed
in the US market must carry nutrition information in a
standardised format. Also to encourage judicious purchase
decision by the consumer, the information must indicate
how the food contributes to a healthy diet. The regulations
are result of the growing health and nutrition consciousness
of the typical American consumer. A food and Drug Administration
(FDA) survey this year showed that 55 percent of American
consumers made their decisions based on what appeared
on the panel. Similar survey in Australia showed that
four out of five read food labels when make purchase of
food items. Other consumer surveys have shown that well
over half the shoppers worldwide are scanning the labels
on food products.
The standard format called 'Nutrition Facts' must indicate
according to the new Act, per serving size, total calories,
calories from fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium,
total carbohydrates, dietary fibre, sugars, protein, vitamin
A, vitamin C, calcium and iron. For easy understanding,
the values are generally given in grams for each nutrient
and as a percentage of recommended daily allowance to
help the consumer not only compare food quality for various
alternatives available but also to decide the daily food
intake to meet the daily dietary nutrition requirement.
This helps to maintain consumers health and promote nutrition
education.
As against that scenario in India we have a prevention
of Food Adulteration Act (PFA) and to regulate processed
fruit and vegetable product we have Fruit Products Order
(FPO). While PFA comes under Ministry of Health, FPO falls
under the purview of Ministry of Food Processing Industry
(earlier this was under Ministry of Agriculture, Dept.,
of Food). The entire scope of these two legislation is
based on the minimum standard of Foods and related to
prevention of food adulteration. Therefore, PFA and FPO
only deal with permitted ingredients, limits thereof and
safety standards. Our food labelling standards and requirement
are not very stringent and are governed by both these
regulatory authorities as well as by Packaged Commodities
Rules (PCR) under Weights and Measures Act. Both PCR and
PFA have punitive power but FPO does not have. FPO can
only cancel licences for any violations and default.
Our food labelling standards are the minimum standards
dealing with standards weights and measures of various
categories of food, label size, size of the letters in
the text of the declaration, nomenclature and other statutory
declarations like maximum retail price etc. The product
related information as required by law are minimal and
limited to contains permitted colour and preservative,
contains no fruit juice etc. The food laws in other countries
even on these issues require that the manufacturers declare
the name of food colour, preservative and other additives,
if added. The food products which are not classified under
PFA Act are called proprietary products and for proprietary,
designed and fabricated foods the ingredient list in descending
order need to be declared in addition to other statutory
declarations. If the manufacturer claims any nutritional
or therapeutic property of the food, rules said that the
label should indicate the quantity present. Thus if manufacturer
claims in the label that it contains vitamin and minerals
the limit or quantity present should be declared. But
if it claims "minerals and vitamins added" there
is no such requirement for declaring the quantity present,
which can obviously misled the consumers.
The way processed foods, ready-to-serve food and fast
food consumption are growing there is definitely a concern
whether consumers are getting the adequate nutrition from
their daily rations. Towards this end, nutrition labelling,
if made compulsory, will be of great help. Firstly, there
will be a basis of comparison of quality from the wide
choice that is available. Secondly, the manufacturers
will have to be more careful about the processing methods
and standards that are adopted in order to preserve the
wholesomeness of food because it will be the responsibility
of the manufacturers to ensure conformance to declared
standard till it is consumed.
We find in the market, lot of products including soft
drinks, snacks, vegetable oil etc. with claim that the
products are either low fat, fat free, low calorie, light
(or lite) etc and these descriptions are used interchangeably.
Consumers, in general, practically understand the same
thing from all these claims and local food laws also don't
differentiate them. Whereas US-FDA clearly defines such
claims and manufacturers have to satisfy that. For example,
as per US FDA low-fat means 3gm or less of fat per serving,
fat free is 1/2 gm of fat per serving, and low calorie
product should have 40 calories or less per serving. Light
or lite is 50 percent less fat than standard product.
US-FDA has also restricted the claims regarding relationships
between a nutrient or food and the risk of a disease or
health related condition. Only seven such relationships
are allowed to be claimed. They are __ relationship between
calcium and osteoporosis; fat and cancer, saturated fat
and cholesterol and coronary heart disease, fruit and
vegetables and cancer, sodium and hypertension, grain
products and cancer, folic acid and neural tube defects.
The food exporters to United States will thus have to
conform to these requirements.
In India food labelling standard is still in its infancy
and only provide very limited information towards product
quality, safety and wholesomeness. Only recently a very
select category of foods like baby foods and fruit and
vegetable products have been taken up for deciding about
the Environment Friendly Labelling Standards at the initiative
of the Ministry of Environment and Forest and I have represented
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in that Committee.
But that is a voluntary standard and I have immense doubt
whether there will be any taken for that in the Industry.
It would be a great service if the food labelling is made
compulsory to incorporate nutritional and other quality
details of the product so that consumers are not taken
for a ride. o
_______________
