ISMA Director General Deepak Ballani addresses a press conference on the recent surge in domestic sugar prices, in New Delhi on August 24.
| Photo Credit: ANI

The prices have dropped in all the major sugar producing States. File.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

India’s sugar consumption is estimated at around 29 million tons, which could allow New Delhi to export 2 million to 2.5 million tons of sugar in the new season. File.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

File photograph used for representational purposes only
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Packaged food and drinks should have easy-to-read nutritional information on the front of the products to help consumers make healthier choices, according to the first-ever World Health Organization draft guidelines that stopped short of recommending harsher warning labels.

Increased consumption of processed foods high in salt, sugar and fat is a key driver of a global obesity crisis, with more than a billion people living with the condition and an estimated eight million early deaths every year due to associated health problems like diabetes and heart disease, WHO data shows.

Yet governments have struggled to introduce policies to curb the epidemic.

Currently, only 43 WHO member states have any kind of front-of-package labelling either mandatory or voluntary, the UN agency told Reuters, despite evidence showing labels can affect buying behaviour.

The WHO began work on the draft guidelines, which have not been previously reported, in 2019. They aim “to support consumers in making healthier food-related decisions,” Katrin Engelhardt, a scientist in the Nutrition and Food Safety department of the WHO, told Reuters by email.

A public consultation on the guidelines closed on October 11 and the finalised version will be released in early 2025.

The WHO’s guidance recommends governments implement “interpretive” labels that include nutritional information and some explanation of what that means about the healthiness of a product.

An example would be NutriScore, developed in France and used in a number of European countries, which ranks food from A (green, containing essential nutrients) to E (red, containing high levels of added salts, sugars, fats or calories).

Chile and several other countries in Latin America use a tougher system, with warnings that a food is “high in sugar”, salt or fat on the front of the package, in a black octagon that resembles a stop sign.

Food labelling expert Lindsey Smith Taillie, co-director of the Global Food Research Program at the University of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, said the food industry has pushed back against warnings and favours “non-interpretive” labels, which include the nutrient information but no guide on how to understand what that means, such as those used in the United States. This week, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders announced plans for a Senate hearing on tougher food labelling in December.

While the WHO recommendation goes a step further than the industry’s preference, it “is fairly weak,” Taillie said.

“The most important thing for most countries globally is going to be to limit excess intake of added sugars, sodium, saturated fat and ultra-processed foods more generally – which is what warning labels do best.”

Research this summer by Taillie showed Chile’s warning labels, alongside other policies like marketing restrictions to children, meant Chileans bought 37% less sugar, 22% less sodium, 16% less saturated fat and 23% fewer total calories compared to if the law had not been implemented.

The WHO said there was not enough evidence to determine the best label system.

The International Food and Beverage Alliance, whose members include The Coca Cola Company and Mondelez International Inc, said that its members already have minimum worldwide standards globally. They include listing nutrients on the back of packages, plus a front of pack detail on at least the energy content where practicable, in line with the international Codex Alimentarius system.

“This is something global companies can do, but it’s clearly not enough because if you take Nigeria or Pakistan … the market is dominated by local producers,” said Rocco Renaldi, the IFBA’s Secretary-General. He said the alliance’s members broadly support the WHO’s guidelines and nutrient-based labels.

“But the devil is in the detail – generally speaking, we don’t support approaches that demonise particular products,” he said. “We don’t think health-warning type labels belong on food products that are deemed safe, approved and on the market, and loved by consumers.”

New Delhi:

On the hottest days, risk of hospitalisation for people with metabolic disorders such as those of sugar and blood pressure, and obesity, almost doubled as compared to days recording comfortable temperatures, a new study has found.

The research analysing hospital admissions related to high temperatures during summer over more than a decade in Spain found that extreme heat impacted people with these conditions the most.

“There are a number of reasons to explain this. For example, in people with obesity, heat loss responses work less efficiently, as body fat acts as an insulator, making them more susceptible to heat disorders,” said Hicham Achebak, a researcher at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health.

Higher levels of air pollution further appeared to worsen the risk of hospital admission for people with these conditions, including diabetes, the researchers said.

The study also found that on hotter days, men showed a higher risk of hospital admission due to injuries, while women showed a higher risk of hospitalisation from infectious, hormonal and metabolic, respiratory or urinary diseases.

“Under conditions of heat stress, the body activates cutaneous vasodilation (more blood flows to skin) and sweat production in order to lose heat. The subsequent reactions can affect people differently depending on a series of factors, such as age, sex or pre-existing health conditions,” explained Achebak, corresponding author of the study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

“We know, for example, that women have a higher temperature threshold above which sweating mechanisms are activated and are more susceptible to the effects of heat,” he said.

The researchers analysed data of more than 11.2 million emergency hospital admissions between 2006 and 2019 from 48 provinces in mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands, an archipelago off eastern Spain in the Mediterranean.

Using statistical methods of analysis, the team estimated how temperatures affected the different causes of hospitalisation for summer (June to September) and by province. They also considered daily average temperatures and relative humidity, along with air pollutant levels, including those of PM2.5.

High temperatures were found to have “a generalised impact on cause-specific hospitalisations.” Children under a year and adults older than 85 years were the most vulnerable, even as heat heightened the risk of hospitalisation across all age groups, the researchers said.

“The underlying mechanisms by which heat triggers adverse health outcomes remain unclear, but they seem to be related to how our body regulates its own temperature,” said Achebak.

Other conditions that increased an individual’s risk of hospitalisation because of extreme heat were those of kidney, including failure and stones, and urinary tract infection, the researchers found.

Heat was also found to raise the risk of hospitalisation in people with sepsis, in which chemicals released in the blood to fight infections trigger inflammation throughout the body.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Two of the best-selling baby-food brands by Nestle in India contain high levels of added sugar, while such products are sugar-free in the United Kingdom, Germany Switzerland, and other developed nations, according to an investigation by Public Eye. The report said that Nestle, which is the world’s largest consumer goods company, adds sugar and honey to infant milk and cereal products in several countries, a violation of international guidelines aimed at preventing obesity and chronic diseases. Violations were found only in Asian, African, and Latin American countries.

Findings showed that in India, all 15 Cerelac baby products contain an average of nearly 3 grams of sugar per serving. The same product is being sold with no added sugar in Germany and the UK, while in Ethiopia and Thailand, it contains nearly 6 grams, the study said.  

The amount of added sugar is often not even disclosed in the nutritional information available on the packaging of these kinds of products.

“While Nestle prominently highlights the vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients contained in its products using idealizing imagery, it’s not transparent when it comes to added sugar,” the report said.

Nestle sold over Rs 20,000-Crore worth of Cerelac products in India in 2022.

Experts say that adding sugar, which is highly addictive, to baby products is a dangerous and unnecessary practice.

“This is a big concern. Sugar should not be added to foods offered to babies and young children because it is unnecessary and highly addictive,” says Rodrigo Vianna, epidemiologist and Professor at the Department of Nutrition of the Federal University of Paraiba in Brazil.

“Children get used to the sweet taste and start looking for more sugary foods, starting a negative cycle that increases the risk of nutrition-based disorders in adult life. These include obesity and other chronic non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes or high blood pressure,” he added.

A Nestle India spokesperson though said that they comply with all local regulations and international standards, and have already reduced added sugars across its infant cereal range by up to 30% in the last five years.

“Over the past five years, Nestlé India has reduced added sugars by up to 30%, depending on the variant, in our infant cereals portfolio (milk cereal-based complementary food),” the spokesperson told LiveMint.

The country’s sugar production crossed 30 million tonne till March of the ongoing 2023-24 season. File.
| Photo Credit: K.V.S. Giri

The government on April 15 ruled out possibility of allowing sugar exports in the current 2023-24 season ending October, the industry’s persistent demand notwithstanding.

Currently, there are curbs on export of sugar for an indefinite period.

However, Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) has requested the government to allow export of 10 lakh tonne of sugar in the 2023-24 season, anticipating healthy closing stock by the season-end.

“As of now, the government is not considering sugar exports although the industry has demanded,” a senior food ministry official told PTI.

The country’s sugar production crossed 30 million tonne till March of the ongoing 2023-24 season.

ISMA has revised net sugar production estimate for 2023-24 season to 32 million tonne. The government has estimated sugar output at 31.5-32 million tonne.

Meanwhile, the government is considering allowing sugar mills to use excess stock of B-heavy molasses for ethanol production this year.