VADODARA: Your favorite multigrain atta or bread that boasts of proteins and fiber will actually give you less than half the nutrition from its regular counterpart. A study by researchers at MS University's faculty of family and community sciences (FFCS) has identified over 200 food products with improper food labeling by the manufacturers of food products that mislead consumers while buying them. The study is funded by Gujarat Council on Science and Technology.
It is mandatory for the food manufacturers to provide information on ingredients, allergens, natural or artificial colours and flavours and nutrition content on the nutrition fact panel. Assistant professor at the department of foods and nutrition of the FFCS Dr Suneeta Chandorkar said that most of the manufacturers fail in incorporating the guidelines set by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
As part of the study, over 1,100 food labels were analyzed to study their compliance with the guidelines laid down by FSSAI. According to the researchers, food labeling is in its infancy in India. As most legislation is voluntary in nature, even the mandatory guidelines are not followed by the manufacturers.
"Fat, trans fat, sugar and sodium are nutrients of concern as these are associated with incidence of obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart ailments and various other non-communicable diseases. Ideally these nutrients should be present in lower quantities, but in several foods, hidden or alternative sources were found in ingredients list rendering the food unhealthy. Presence of alternative sources of nutrients of concern makes it difficult for the consumers to interpret food labels accurately," said Chandorkar.
"It is mandatory to provide nutrition information in English, Hindi or a regional language on the product, yet majority of the products we studied provided the information only in English," she added.
"We found that the analyzed values for sodium, sugar and fat were higher than the reported values on the packaging. We also identified major potential allergens," said Meenu Singh, a research scholar.
"An ideal ingredient list will have ingredients in the decreasing order of their weight expressed in percentages," she added.
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