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540 Asia Pac J Clin Nutr 2015;24(3):540-545
Original Article
The adherence of packaged food products in Hyderabad,
India with nutritional labelling guidelines
1,2 3 4
Elizabeth K Dunford PhD , Rama K Guggilla MMed , Anenta Ratneswaran MBBS ,
1,2 3 1,2
Jacqueline L Webster PhD , Pallab K Maulik PhD , Bruce C Neal PhD
1
The George Institute for Global Health, Sydney, Australia
2
The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
3
The George Institute for Global Health, Hyderabad, India
4
Imperial College, London, England
Background: India is experiencing a nutrition transition with the consumption of processed foods rapidly in-
creasing. Nutrition labels are essential if consumers are to understand the healthiness of these products. The Food
Safety and Standards Authority of India have recently introduced regulation defining national nutrition labelling
requirements and Codex Alimentarius recommends a global standard. Objectives: To quantify the adherence of
the declared nutrients on Indian packaged foods with national and global requirements. Methods: The presence
or absence of data for seven required nutrients was recorded for all food products available for sale. Branches of
three major retail chains and three smaller stores in Hyderabad, India between October and November, 2010 were
surveyed. Results: Data were collected for 4166 packaged products that fell into 14 different food groups. 52% of
products displayed nutrient information on energy, protein, carbohydrate, sugar and total fat, meeting the mini-
mum requirements of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. Only 27% met the minimum criteria de-
fined by Codex which also requires the reporting of saturated fat and sodium. There was significant variation in
compliance for leading brands, country of manufacture and food group (p<0.01 for all). Conclusions: The ma-
jority of Indian packaged foods do not meet national and international nutrient labelling guidelines. With the In-
dian population likely to consume much more packaged food over coming years full and effective food labelling
will be essential. The failure of Indian legislation to require labelling of sodium and saturated fat may warrant re-
view.
Key Words: nutritional labelling, processed foods, Codex Alimentarius, India, labelling regulation
INTRODUCTION on product packaging) in India published in 2009 by the
Chronic diseases are the leading cause of premature death Ministry of Health identified food labelling as “one of the
and disability in the world and cause the greatest propor- important population-based approaches that can help con-
tion of disease burden in all but the least developed coun- sumers make healthy food choices by providing the nec-
1 8
tries. These diseases are substantively attributable to essary information about the food on the pack”. This
poor diet, with over-nutrition a major cause of diet-related assessment included one small market survey in Hydera-
1,2
ill health. Many low and middle income countries bad in 2009 where data were collected for 815 products.
around the world are now experiencing a “nutrition tran- This study looked mainly at compliance with local label-
sition”, where the consumption of processed foods high in ling standards but did not explore the types of nutrients
energy density, saturated fat, sugar and salt is increas- that were displayed on products. The kinds of nutrition
3-5
ing. information made available for consumers on packaged
Traditionally, the Indian population has consumed a foods is important, particularly as research has shown that
diet based upon fruits, vegetables and unprocessed cere- 37% of Indians always check the nutritional information
6
als. National Nutrition Surveys done over the past 20 when buying packaged food and that only 5% Indians
9
years show that consumption patterns are now changing, never check nutrition labels. Also, with only 59% Indi-
7
particularly in high- and middle-income groups. Increas-
es in per capita disposable income, alterations to lifestyle
Corresponding Author: Dr Elizabeth Dunford, the George
and changes in the food environment are driving consum-
Institute for Global Health King George V Building Missenden
6
ers towards highly processed products. With this shift
Rd Camperdown NSW, 2050 Australia.
from the preparation and consumption of whole foods
Tel: + 61 2 8507 2529; Fax: + 61 2 9993 4502
comes a need for food labelling such that the content of
Email: edunford@georgeinstitute.org.au
processed foods can be relayed to consumers.
Manuscript received 08 July 2014. Initial review completed and
The latest assessment on the status of nutrition label- accepted 30 September 2014.
ling (defined in this paper as the declaration of nutrients doi: 10.6133/apjcn.2015.24.3.08
Labelling of Indian processed foods 541
ans understanding the food labels that they read, it is im- presence of nutritional information per 100 g (or per 100
portant to ensure that all food manufacturers are display- mL for fluids), manufacturer name and country of manu-
ing sufficient and comparable nutrition information on facture were the minimum data sought.
9
their products.
Prior to 2006, the information requirement for pack- Data analysis
aged food products in India was governed by the 1954 The number and percentage of products displaying infor-
Prevention of Food Adulteration Act which provided for mation on the package for energy, protein, carbohydrate,
the provision of basic data such as product name and ex- sugar, total fat, saturated fat and sodium were calculated
piry date, but not nutritional information. Labelling re- for each food group. The percentage of products display-
quirements are now the remit of the Food Safety and ing the minimum nutrient information requirements by
Standards Authority of India which in 2011 introduced the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (energy,
new packaging and labelling regulations that require core protein, carbohydrate, sugars and total fat) and Codex
10
information on nutritional content. In parallel, Codex Alimentarius (energy, protein, carbohydrate, sugars, total
Alimentarius, the international body governing food la- fat, saturated fat and sodium) were calculated overall, for
belling, established by the Food and Agriculture Organi- each food group, for products manufactured in India ver-
zation and the World Health Organization in 1963, has sus imported products, and for products marketed by
11
also revised its guidelines on nutrition labelling. The leading brands. Leading brands were defined as those
objective of this study was to define the extent to which which had more than 50 products in the database. Pear-
packaged food products available for purchase in a sam- son’s chi-squared tests were used to examine the propor-
ple of Indian stores in the State of Andhra Pradesh met tions of products complying with labelling criteria be-
these guidelines prior to the 2011 legislation coming into tween groups. All statistical analyses were done using
effect. IBM SPSS Statistics Version 19 and a p value of <0.05
was considered unlikely to have arisen by chance alone.
METHODS
This study comprised a survey of processed foods for sale RESULTS
at selected retail outlets in Hyderabad, India with data Data were collected for 4166 products in 14 food catego-
collection done over a two month period between October ries. Seventy five percent of products were manufactured
and November 2010. in India with the remaining products imported from 21
other countries. Packaged fruit and vegetable products
Retail outlets surveyed were the category with the largest number of products
The survey included six stores in urban areas. The stores comprising 19% of the total, followed by cereal and cere-
were three large chain retail outlets in Jubilee Hills fre- al products with 12%. Fish and fish products were the
quented primarily by wealthier customers, and three small least in number making up just 1% of the total. Twelve
individually managed stores in two localities adjacent to brands had more than 50 products in the database and
Jubilee Hills where less affluent consumers buy their food together the leading brands covered 1278 different food
products. The stores were purposefully selected to ensure items.
that a broad range of packaged foods representative of all
packaged products for sale in Hyderabad was included. Overall compliance with labelling requirements
Permission was obtained from each store. Fifty two per cent of products displayed the minimum
nutritional information required by the 2011 Indian label-
Data collection ling legislation (energy, protein, carbohydrate, sugar and
Data collection was done by three trained persons who total fat) but only 27% complied with the minimum rec-
visited the stores and recorded the label data onto a stand- ommendations of Codex, which suggests the additional
12
ard data collection sheet. All packaged food products reporting of saturated fat and sodium (Table 1). Sugar,
that were available for sale in each store during the period saturated fat and sodium were each reported on about half
of data collection were recorded. Where exactly the same of products while the other data were reported for about
food was presented in different packaging or different three quarters (Table 1).
serving sizes or was present in multiple stores, only one
set of information was collected unless the product was Completeness of labelling by brand, food category and
marketed as a different brand. The data entry process was country of manufacturer
verified by taking a random sample of 10% of entries and The completeness of food labelling varied markedly
comparing the information on presence or absence of between brands and food categories for both Food Safety
nutritional labels in the database against the original data and Standards Authority of India and Codex
source in-store. In no case was there an error whereby recommendations (p<0.01 for all). There were two brands
information about a nutrient was recorded incorrectly as with complete adherence to local requirements (Britannia
being present or absent on the label. and PepsiCo India with 109 products in total) but none
with more than 70% of products meeting Codex
Food categories and variables collected recommendations (Figure 1). Convenience foods were the
The food categories used here were based on those devel- category most adherent to both local (80%) and Codex
12
oped by the Global Food Monitoring Group. According- (46%) recommendations whilst edible oils, at the other
ly, foods were categorized into 14 food groups. For each end of the spectrum, were almost completely non-
food item, the brand name, product name, serving size, adherent (Figure 2). Imported products were more
542 EK Dunford, RK Guggilla, A Ratneswaran, JL Webster, PK Maulik and BC Neal
Table 1. Proportion of Indian and imported products meeting Food Safety and Standards Authority of India and
Codex guidance for nutrition labelling
*
Indian products (%) Imported products (%) All products (%) p value (Indian vs imported)
Energy 73 86 76 <0.01
Protein 73 85 76 <0.01
Carbohydrate 73 86 77 <0.01
Sugar 49 70 54 <0.01
Total fat 72 85 75 <0.01
Meet Food Safety and 47 68 52 <0.01
Standards Authority of
India
Saturated fat 42 58 46 <0.01
Sodium 31 69 41 <0.01
Meet Codex 19 50 27 <0.01
*
p values for comparisons obtained using chi-squared tests.
Figure 1. Percentages of products meeting Food Safety and Standards Authority of India and Codex requirements for nutrition labelling
overall and by leading brands
adherent by both measures than locally manufactured burden of premature death and disability this is something
14
foods with 52% vs 47% (p<0.01) and 27% vs 18% that the country can ill afford. India is not alone in the
(p<0.01) meeting Food Safety and Standards Authority lack of nutrition information being displayed on food
of India and Codex recommendations respectively (Table packages, but is “on par” with a number of other devel-
8
1). oped and developing countries. Previous Indian research
Large numbers of packaged food products available in has indicated that consumers have difficulty interpreting
8
Indian stores fail to display the nutritional information the nutritional information on foods, and it is therefore
that consumers require to make informed choices. This important to ensure that all food manufacturers are
represents a major public health issue as consumers are displaying sufficient and comparable nutrition
eating more and more processed foods without access to information on their products, particularly with
basic information about their healthiness. Since processed international research showing that nutrition labels are the
foods generally have higher levels of energy, saturated fat, key source consumers turn to when trying to evaluate a
8
sugar and salt than their unprocessed counterparts, this is product’s healthiness.
likely to result in serious adverse health outcomes for the It is encouraging, therefore, that the Food Safety and
13
population. With India already suffering an enormous Standards Authority of India has now put in place regula-
Labelling of Indian processed foods 543
Figure 2. Percentages of products meeting Food Safety and Standards Authority of India and Codex requirements requirements for
nutrition labelling overall and by food group
tion defining minimum requirements for the labelling of This paper represents an important insight into food la-
10
the nutritional content of packaged foods. However, the belling practices in local and imported packaged food
absence of sodium and saturated fat levels from the cur- products in India. Strengths of this study are its large size,
rent requirement warrants review. The routine provision the systematic evaluation of all products for sale in the
of sodium data on packaged food products will be vital stores included and the comparison of compliance against
for the effective implementation of salt reduction efforts both national and international guidance. The restriction
in India, as it will be elsewhere in the world. Likewise, of the survey to Hyderabad was a limitation and it is un-
the absence of saturated fat from the Food Safety and likely that the products included in the survey are truly
Standards Authority of India requirements may also be an representative of all products available for sale in India.
oversight that needs correction. Saturated fats are impli- It is also possible that levels of compliance with labelling
cated particularly strongly in the causation of dyslipidae- regulation may vary from other parts of Andhra Pradesh
15
mia and vascular disease. Another issue relating to the and between the other States and Territories of the coun-
enforcement of the Indian food labelling regulation is that try. However, many of the manufacturers with included
food safety regulators lack knowledge of the existing products supply nationally and so it is likely that the
food labelling regulations because updates through gov- products included in this study would be available in oth-
16
ernment channels have not been forthcoming. er parts of India. Local data suggest that packaged foods
Periodic follow-up surveys to assess the compliance of constitute a similar proportion of the food supply across
17
national and international corporations with this initiative multiple regions of India. We also note that this study
of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India will has focused only on the presence or absence of nutrient
be an important aspect for the Indian government to take labels and does not address other aspects of labelling de-
leadership in. It is also clear from the differences between fined under Food Safety and Standards Authority of India
the compliance achieved for different food categories and and Codex requirements such as the date of manufacture,
different food companies that better adherence to label- the ingredients statement, declared nutrient levels and
ling requirements can be achieved if the drivers are right. contact information for the manufacturer.
A careful examination of the corporate policies behind The achievement of good food labelling in India will
brands like Britannia and PepsiCo India might help to be an important part of the country’s efforts to address the
identify the means by which compliance can be enhanced. burgeoning non-communicable disease burden, and
Likewise, the systematically greater proportions of im- government leadership in this area will be vital. This pa-
ported compared to local products that are compliant with per has identified important problems with how nutrients
recommendations suggest that multinational corporations are labeled on food packages in India. The results of this
might be able to provide insight into mechanisms for im- paper will be useful in informing government on the in-
proving product labelling in India. For example, many dustry’s adherence to labelling of required nutrients in
multinational companies that import products to India India, and provide a baseline from which future im-
will also operate in countries that have legislation requir- provements in Indian food labelling can be monitored.
ing compliance with Codex, and it would be straightfor- The enforcement of effective food labelling regulations
ward for these companies to provide full nutrition labels will both help consumers to make better choices and
for the foods they market in India. facilitate the monitoring of industry compliance with the
program.
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