Relevance: GS-2: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources

Key Phrases: Front-of-Package Labelling (FOPL), Health Star Rating (HSR) system, National Nutrition Survey-2016, Non-Communicable Diseases, Packaged food and Drinks, Nutrient Specific ‘Warning' Labels.

Why in News?

• Food regulator, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) will soon make public its draft regulations on front-of-package labelling (FOPL) that recommends a health star rating (HSR) system.
• Public health experts and consumer rights organizations have criticized these regulations for being ineffective and misleading.

Key Highlights:

• Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) plans to go ahead with a new star rating system for packaged foods and beverages, instead of telling companies to use warning labels based on ingredients.
• The move comes in order to tackle the non-communicable diseases accounting for 60% of all deaths in the country.
• The comprehensive National Nutrition Survey-2016 states that more than half the children between the ages of 5 and 19 show biomarkers of non-communicable diseases.
• Consuming highly processed foods increases the risk of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, heart diseases, stroke, and kidney disease.

About New Health Star Rating System:

• Health star rating is a labelling system that grades packaged foods on a scale of one to five stars.
• The healthier options receive a higher star rating, similar to the star rating of electronics based on their energy efficiency.
• The new labelling aims to discourage consumers from buying packaged foods high in sugar, salt, and fats.
• The system was chosen out of five methods based on an FSSAI commissioned survey conducted by the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A) of 20,500 consumers.

What are The views of Health Experts About the New Health Star Rating System?

1. Star Rating System doing more harm than good :
   • Health star ratings are misleading and do more harm to customers than good.
   • The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) will give a license to glorify junk foods, which is the opposite of what should be done.
   • Health star ratings are depicted based on an algorithm at the back-end, which is not known to consumers.
   • It can't allow a system that will effectively nudge the consumer to make unhealthy choices.
   • It will mislead the consumer because of its design, algorithm, and inclusion of positive nutrients in the calculation.
2. Warming label better than Star Rating :
   • As per the health experts, a warning label where a symbol is displayed on the front of food packs high in salt, sugar, fat, and various preservatives, was found to be better as per the IIM survey.
   • If the government is serious about the “epidemic” of obesity and non-communicable diseases, the consumer needs to be cautioned about junk foods through ‘warning' labels.
   • The experts have also questioned the IIM survey for ranking the star rating system as the best.
3. Unreliable Survey :
   • The survey is being analysed by several experts and is said to be unreliable.
   • For example, it looks at three different consumer groups – a healthy group that has been primed to understand the labelling norm, an unhealthy group that has been primed, and an unprimed group.
   • But, then it combines all the data to arrive at the conclusion.
   • The statutory body also ignored the global best practices and evidence around it.
4. Not an Inclusive Survey :
   • It doesn’t adequately seek responses from those with poor literacy levels as 70% of the population surveyed is Intermediate pass or above and more than 70% of the respondents are also from urban areas simply because the institutions that participated were located in cities.
5. Industry friendlier than customer-friendly :
   • The sole objective of the stakeholder consultations, which were heavily dominated by the packaged food industry, was to come up with a labelling system, which helps in curbing the consumption of junk foods but instead the regulations are coming to be more industry-friendly.

What are The Views of The Regulator Against The Criticism?

• Six rounds of stakeholder consultations with consumer organizations as well as the industry were conducted following which there was consensus on everything except the exact format of the FOPL.
• Everyone will have an opportunity to give comments on the draft regulations and a scientific panel will examine them.
• There can be no comparison of the effectiveness of two FOPLs in the same population, because there is one FOPL in a country.

Why is the FSSAI in favour of voluntary adoption of FOPLs by the food industry instead of making them mandatory?

• The implementation cannot happen in any country in the world instantaneously.
• We can have an initial voluntary period and then move towards improving the thresholds and making the FOPL mandatory.

Why is the food industry present at various FSSAI meetings held on policy matters?

• The industry has to implement the regulations and if it is not involved in the decision-making process then it is a non-inclusive way of doing things.

Best Practices:

• The proven best practice in front-of-pack labelling is nutrient-specific ‘warning' labels.
• They have been simple and effective in discouraging junk food consumption.
• Several Latin American countries, Canada and Israel have already adopted warning labels. Many other countries are considering them. Among them, the best known are symbol-based warning labels such as that of Israel.
• There was a change in consumption patterns in several Latin American countries that implemented such warning labels, with Chile witnessing a 24% drop in sugary drink consumption.
• A meta-analysis of 100 studies published last year indicated that nutrient warning labels are more effective than other known methods.

Conclusion:

• Warning label allows consumers to recognise whether a product is harmful to health within seven to ten seconds.
• These will be most suitable for India, as they would transcend the literature and language barriers.
• A star is perceived to be positive, and it has been associated with an increase in the consumption of these foods.

Source: The Hindu

Mains Question:

Q. The draft on front-of-package labelling (FOPL) by FSSAI recommends a health star rating (HSR) system for packaged food and drinks in order to tackle the non-communicable diseases but the star rating system is perceived to increase the consumption of these food items. Discuss.