Ensuring safe food for better tomorrow is everyone’s business

By George Cheriyan

Jaipur: To draw global attention to the contamination of food and water, the World Food Safety Day is observed every year on June 7, since 2019.

This year’s theme for the Day is ‘Safe food today for a healthy tomorrow’, which focuses on producing and consuming safe food. Having safe food gives an immediate, long-term benefit to people, the planet, and the economy.

In the context of pandemic this theme is more relevant. While it is a fact that no foods or dietary supplements can prevent or cure the COVID-19 infection, safe and healthy diet aids to build one’s immunity and help stay healthy and fight the virus.

With an estimated 600 million cases of foodborne illnesses annually world over, unsafe food is a threat to human health and economy, disproportionally affecting vulnerable and marginalized people, especially women and children.

According to UN, an estimated 420,000 people around the world die every year after eating contaminated food, and children under 5 years of age accounts for 40 percent of the foodborne disease burden, with 125,000 deaths every year.

Reports show that India is home to 40 percent of the global underweight population and at the same time ranks fifth in global obesity. To deal with paradox, country not only needs to fight against food contamination and adulteration, but also needs to tackle both under-nutrition and over-nutrition.

Marketing of junk foods

According to a report of Public Health Foundation of India, between the years 1990 and 2016, disease burden in India due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) increased from 48 percent to 75 percent. Knowingly flooding the markets with such unsafe food products, high in fat, sugar and salt, by few of the food manufacturers, with profit only as motive, became evident with the recent exposure of internal documents of the world’s largest packaged food and beverages Swiss multinational company, Nestle.

The internal document acknowledges that 60 percent of its mainstream product portfolio is unhealthy. According to the document, about 70 percent of Nestle’s food products and 96 percent of beverages, excluding pure coffee fails to meet the minimum healthy threshold. In addition, 99 percent of Nestle’s confectionery and ice cream portfolio also fails to meet the threshold rating.

Obesity and children

Studies show that there is a possible correlation between obesity and television junk food commercials. Even a short exposure to food advertising on television has a significant influence on children’s buying preferences and habits. According to a study in 2018 by Cancer Research UK, children who are exposed to more than 3 hours of television were comparatively 250 percent more likely to be ‘junk-food pestering’ their parents, than children who watched significantly less television commercials.

Given that in India the advertisement of such unsafe food items is largely unregulated, it is high time we learn to adopt and follow best practices of other countries. As per Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) regulation ‘Food products high in saturated fat or trans-fat or added sugar or sodium(HFSS) cannot be sold to school children in school canteens/mess premises/hostel kitchens or in an area within fifty meters from the school gate in any direction.’ However, this is limited to only school canteens, which is closed for last 15 months due to pandemic.

Excessive use of chemical fertilizers

To enhance the production and to fight against pests, farmers embrace chemical-intensive production practices, often applying excessive amounts of chemical fertilizers and using dangerous pesticides. In a 2019 study by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, it was revealed that the presence of high level of pesticide residues in food commodities were rampant in the country.

Out of a total of 23,660 food samples analysed during the study, pesticide residues were detected in 4,510 samples (19.10 percent), out of which the residues in 523 samples were found exceeding the maximum residues limit set by FSSAI. In India, 2.78 million hectare of farmland was under organic cultivation as of March 2020. However, this is only 2 percent of the 140.1 million ha net sown area in the country. So much more need to be done in promoting organic farming in India and to formulate an inward-looking organic policy.

Food Adulteration and Contamination

Food adulteration has always remained a big anxiety equally for both consumers and the regulators. According to news reports, more than one-third of the food produced in India, including almost 70 percent of milk sold, are adulterated and substandard. Those that are not adulterated are often either contaminated or spoiled due to lack of proper storage and other infrastructure facilities along the food value chain. While the stringent food law and setting up of FSSAI and enactment of a more strengthened consumer protection law has paved the way for an efficient regulatory system in the country, much more needs to be done on the ground.

What needs to be done?

To ensure safe food the country needs to strictly enforce the existing food safety laws and regulations in letter and spirit. The spirit shown by FSSAI to limit the use of industrially produced trans-fat in all oils, fats and food and restrain the scourge of NCDs is commendable.

India’s decision to implement the elimination of trans fats from January 1, 2002, ahead of the WHO deadline of 2023, is very exemplary. Now it is expected that the same spirit be shown towards coming up with a consumer-friendly front-of-package labels at the earliest to enable consumers to identify in a quick, clear and effective way, products high in sugar, sodium, and fats, the critical nutrients associated with the NCD burden.

It is important consumers should bear some responsibility for the safe handling of foods and consumption of safe food. Inculcating the habit of reading food labels while shopping and trying to gain some minimum knowledge about the content of food item we purchase to consume would all make a positive impact. More importantly we consumers should learn how to avoid packaged foods and replace it with home cooked healthy and tasty recipes, which the on-going pandemic has already taught many of us!

(George Cheriyan is Director of CUTS International, a global public policy research and consumer advocacy organisation headquartered in Jaipur, India. He can be contacted at gc@cuts.org )