Effective Policy is Needed regarding Junk Food
Effective Policy is Needed regarding Junk Food
Dr. Vijay Garg Evidence of increasing lifestyle diseases is coming out due to excessive use of junk food. Which is worrying. It is necessary to stop it solid political measures. But the attitude of policy rulers in deciding on this is postponed. In fact, the industry lobbying continues to weaken this related regulation through marketing.
The well-known medical journal, The Lancet has published a series of papers on the increasing use of ultra-processed food in human food, usually called junk food. It showed how these foods are ignoring public health, causing chronic diseases, and increasing health inequality. Most foods go through some processing - grinding flour and milling rice and lentils to make them cookable or safe. The problem arises when agricultural products are highly processed in factories, they are packed, branded and marketed by calling them healthy. Traditional methods of processing and preserving food such as drying, cooling, freezing, pasteurization, fermentation, baking and bottling, maintain the sour form of food to a large extent, retain for a long time and also enhance taste. On the other hand, ultra-processing food undergoes chemical changes in the ingredients of the substance, adding additives to them and converting it into a ready-to-consume or long -lasting product. Such examples of ultra-processed food include sweet drinks, packaged snacks, potato chips, instant noodles, reconstituted meat, some breakfast serials and flavored yogurt. Excessive use of such products leads to fresh or low processed edible substances out of the dosage and increases the risk of obesity, heart disease, diabetes and other health problems.
These products are also dangerous for the health of the earth. Their production and transportation costs a lot of biofuel, and packaging, which is mostly plastic, creates waste. The Lancet series has analyzed evidence from several studies, showing that ultra-processed food is replacing the long-established way of eating around the world, and this trend is spreading rapidly even in areas where junk food was not yet much. Second, the evidence reinforces that adopting ultra-processed eating methods significantly deteriorates the quality of the dose. Third, the collected evidence suggests that replacing long-standing dietary patterns with ultra processed foods is a major factor in the increasing burden of many chronic diseases associated with dosage in the world.
Despite seeing so much evidence linking the overuse of junk food to a growing number of lifestyle diseases, why are policymakers and governments slow in making decisions? This is because the junk food industry is so powerful that it continues to affect the rules and policy making process through lobbying, marketing and public contact. The data shown in the Lancet series is surprising. In 2024, the top three food corporations-Coca Cola, PepsiCo and Mondelez- spent a total of $13.2 billion on advertising. This is almost four times the executive budget of the World Health Organization. The purpose of junk food marketing is to influence cultural choice and create demand for unhealthy foods.
The global production and marketing power gives the junk food companies political strength. In fact, Coca-Cola sells 2.2 billion bottles or drinks cans daily in the markets of 200 countries, which is supplied by 950 bottling plant operators and 201 partners. Companies threaten the decisions of governments that jobs, investments will go out of hand when they shift their business. Public health experts have identified political activity in the corporate world as a major obstacle to implementing effective public policies to reduce ultra-processed food related losses. The methods used by huge companies are like tobacco, alcohol industry methods. Their purpose is to deal with opposition and prevent regulation, and they do this through their anarchist factions and the global network of research partners made from their own money. In addition to lobbying, they infiltrate their people into government agencies, promote corporate-friendly administrative models and regulators, and try to create 'scientific illusions". In India, all this is clearly seen in the way of work of food regulatory agencies. Interestingly, organizations of the junk food industry have partnered with the food regulator in different health awareness promotion projects, which is a public health.
The government and regulators are hesitant to make a clean definition of ultra-processed food with too much fat, sugar and salt. The 2017 National Multi-Regional Executive Plan Program on Non-Communicable Dizzies called for changes in the Advertising Code and Journalism Conduct Rules to prohibit advertising of high fat, sugar, salt food products, but has not yet implemented. The Ministry of Food Processing Industry was established with the intention to help farmers, but started working junk food industry The government and regulators are hesitant to create a clean definition of ultra-processed food with excess fat, sugar and salt. The 2017 National Multi-Regional Executive Plan Program on Non-Communicable Diets called for changes in the Advertising Code and Journalism Conduct Rules to prohibit advertising of high fat, sugar, salt food products, but has not yet implemented. The Ministry of Food Processing Industry was established with the intention of helping farmers, but started working to promote junk food industry and distribute subsidies. It's time for the ministry to start differentiating between processed and highly-processed food products.
The Lancet series emphasizes that the warning on the front of the pack is currently the only way to significantly reduce unhealthy food products. The food industry in India has so far succeeded in preventing strict labeling on junk food products and simplifying the rules of selling junk foods to children. The Food Regulatory Authority came under the influence of industry, advocating for them to adopt a more mafic star-rating system instead of showing graphic warnings on the pack. The authority is doing this work in the name of adoption after being discussed with stakeholders, while most of these stakeholders are connected to the food producing industry. The food industry has many of its social society organizations and consumer organizations. Standard construction institutions should also follow the conflict of transparent rights to prevent the impact of industrialists on food administration and regulators. It is now clear that government agencies and regulatory bodies define ultra-processed food, and create a policy framework to run it by rules. There should be no confusion between processed food and highly-processed food products. Once a certification policy is in place, government agencies (health, agriculture, food processing, consumer affairs, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting) and regulators must work in coordination. On the one hand, the Ministry of Health is making a hiatus on the increase in non-communicable diseases, while on the other hand, the Food Processing Ministry is subsidizing junk food manufacturers. It is the responsibility of every human being to eat right and stay fit, but at the same time it is also the duty of the government to create an environment in which humans can make the right choice. Therefore, it is extremely important to have the right public policy and food regulatory code in the consumer's rights to create a healthy food environment.
Dr. Vijay Garg Retired Principal Malout Punjab
