Tag : Star

    Need To Save People From Packaged Food

    Packaged Food
    Sunil Aswal
    April7/ 2022

    Vijay Garg Recently the Food and Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has initiated the model of Front of Packing Label (FOPL) of food items. With this a debate has started on whether food packages should have a Health Star Rating (HAR) about the quality of the food or a warning regarding harmful food. In this regard, FSSAI, under pressure from the ultra-processed food industry, has decided that each food should be rated from one to five stars. From the minutes of the meeting, it is evident that while taking this decision, FSSAI has chose to ignore consumer interest and has given undue importance to the opinion of large food processing industries. Why is a warning label better than health star rating? Our country has a tradition of making and eating healthy and nutritious food. Proteins, vitamins, carbohydrates and other nutrients are found in a very balanced form in our food plate, so our diet has always been very balanced. But in the recent past, the trend of processed foods has increased and especially markets are flooded with ultra-processed foods. Scientists believe that these ultra-processed foods are causing many non-communicable diseases (NCDs) including cancer. Not only this, companies use excessive amounts of sugar, salt (sodium) and saturated fats to entice customers and make children get used to, or get addictedto, their products. In our country, diabetes, blood pressure, kidney and liver diseases are becoming common due to excess of sugar, sodium and saturated fats in the food. In our country due to lack of awareness among the people about nutrition and in this case due to absence of warning on food packets, people are unknowingly consuming these harmful food items, due to which these diseases are on rise, som ...

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