CHENNAI: In two weeks, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is planning to put out a draft of the revised food labels, which will include sodium along with other nutritional facts such as carbohydrates, fats, and sugar, FSSAI scientist Anitha Makhijani said at a conference in the city on Friday.
She expected to see smiling faces and hear an applause from senior doctors, scientists and public health experts, who were lobbying for stringent rules that force food manufacturers to reduce salt in their products. But most of them expressed discontent. "It should be salt and not sodium," argued UK-based Dr Graham Macgregor, professor of cardiovascular medicine at the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine. Macgregor has campaigned for regulations for low salt food in countries like the UK, Canada, and Australia.
Until now, FSSAI has said packaged foods can volunteer to display nutritional facts. A few products that list salt usually report it as sodium per 100g. Sodium in food must be multiplied by 2.4 to get the salt in it. "Britain had sodium on food labels more than two decades ago. They changed it to salt because no one knew what they were eating," he said.
Legislations in the UK have been able to bring down average daily salt intake by citizens from 11g to 9g in the past decade. "There is a 40% reduction and most people did not know that their food has lesser salt. But we have seen a 25% reduction in health spending due to high blood pressure and its complications," he said.
At a conference organised by the Sapiens Foundation and scientists from Indian Institute of Technology Madras, experts brainstormed strategies for action against salt with officials of FSSAI, experts from WHO and other international experts. Studies show Indians consume up to 10.98g of salt every day against the WHO recommendation of 5g. High intake of salt can increase blood pressure and cause stroke and diseases of the heart and kidney.
Makhijani said the FSSAI will consider making modifications to the rules. "As of now, declaration of nutritional facts are not mandatory. Rules will have to be amended for that," he said. Chief nephrologist at Sapiens Foundation Dr Rajan Ravichandran said the aim is to reduce salt intake by at least 2g in the next five years. "We want all food products to list the amount of table salt, besides preservatives like sodium bicarbonate. If the product uses above the prescribed level, it should be labelled red and those below should be labelled green," he said.
WHO deputy director Soumya Swaminathan said research on salt will help organisations like the Indian Council of Medical Research push for policies that will help the country bring down the incidence of non-communicable diseases. "It's the need of the hour," she said.
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