The Union Consumer Affairs Ministry on Friday asked the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to initiate “appropriate action” against the Nestle group for allegedly selling baby products with high sugar content in India.
The Department has initiated this action following a report that the Nestle Company has allegedly added 2.7 grams of sugar per serving to their Cerelac baby cereals sold in India; they are said to refrain from the practice in countries such as Germany, Switzerland, France, and the United Kingdom.
“High sugar content in baby products raises serious concerns about the potential implications for the health and safety of children in our country. The health and well-being of our citizens, especially infants and young children, is of paramount importance, and any deviation from safety standards could lead to serious health concerns,” the letter to FSSAI noted.
Arun Gupta from the Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India said that India needs to review its food safety laws and ensure that they are implemented in a strict manner.
“Businesses operate for profit but the government must ensure the safety of its citizens. Any laxity in the laws will ensure that the health of the citizens and in this case vulnerable infants gets compromised,” he said.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has for several years now warned against the presence of high sugar content in baby food products.
“This study stresses the need for urgent action to reshape the food environment for children,” Dr. Francesco Branca, director of the WHO’s Department of Nutrition and Food Safety, told an investigation agency based in Switzerland Public Eye and International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN), which brought out the report on the sugar content.
“Eliminating added sugars from food products for young children would be an important way to implement early prevention of obesity,” he added.
The WHO has warned that obesity is dramatically on the rise, particularly in low and middle income countries, where it has now reached “epidemic proportions”, and is fuelling an increase of noncommunicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes. Increased consumption of highly processed foods, often dense in sugar content, is singled out as one of the main causes of this epidemic.
