Recently, a think tank conducted an analysis of 43 advertisements for products loosely classified as junk food. Based on the study, the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) arrived at the conclusion that none of them provided crucial information on the amount of sugar, salt or saturated fat present in a product.
This has added to the call by public health advocates for a law to ban the advertisement of junk food given the rise in non-communicable diseases in the country.
The analysis also revealed that such advertisements, which primarily targeted children, relied on celebrity endorsements, appealed at an emotional level and came up with health claims that were unverified or unfounded.
As pointed out by activists, the draft notification put out by the Food and Safety Standards Authority of India on front-of-package labelling has been pending over a year. They have also been arguing that as a deterrent, such products be brought into a higher slab of the goods and services tax.
Srinath Reddy, the founder and past president of PHFI, highlighted that junk food provides poor nutrition, which affects growth and overall health and wellbeing. Hence, there was a need to counter the ‘junk push’ by the sharing factual information on the harm it could cause backed up by creating public demand for strong regulatory measures, according to a media report.