Be Punchy On Munchy

Processed food regulation is too lenient to make a difference to snacking’s serious health costs

Food regulator FSSAI should cut down on munchies. It’s giventhe snack industry a long four-year-period before front ofpacket labelling (FOPL) becomes mandatory. And its limits for permissible sugar, salt and fat content in processed foods are very high. Lifestyle diseases like diabetes, hypertension and cardiac ailments are already at alarming levels. Factor in economic costs of morbidities – loss of productivity and household savings. The industry perhaps worries that FOPL will open people’s eyes to the reality of processed foods. But that’s exactly the point. Processed food is not healthy.