Welcoming the move, Dr Arun Gupta, Pediatrician and Convenor of Nutrition Advocacy in Public Interest (NAPi), a national think-tank on nutrition consisting of independent medical experts, paediatricians, and nutritionists, said, “It is heartening to see the centre’s recognition that consumption of foods products high in sugar, salt or fat (HFSS) is a leading factor for obesity and non-communicable diseases.”However, he said, efforts to put up such boards are good, but to reduce the demand for HFSS foods, the government needs to introduce policy interventions on pre-packaged ultra-processed food products, which are always high in the nutrients of concern and remain hidden.“These are aggressively and deceptively advertised and mislabeled. Therefore, to achieve a meaningful reduction in the consumption of HFSS, the government should ban its advertisements, put warning labels on HFSS products, and consider health taxes on them,” he told TNIE.Officials said some ministries, including the health ministry, located in Nirman Bhavan, have started displaying these oil and sugar boards in their canteens and have also started serving healthy food like ‘satu,’ ‘millet,’ ‘corns,’ ‘coconut water,’ ‘green tea,’ instead of sugary milk tea and health shakes.
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