Obesity in children: Paediatricians bat for nutrient-specific labels on packaged food

Mumbai Paediatricians from around the country are batting for inclusion of nutrient-specific warning labels on packaged foods as a way to counter the obesity pandemic among Indian children. According to the National Family Health Survey 5 conducted in 2019-2020, 3.4% of all children under five in India are overweight, as compared to 2.1% in NHFS4 They recommend easy-to-interpret symbols to indicate whether a food item is healthy for children in terms of sugar, salt, caffeine and saturated fats levels, and calorific value. The Non-Communicable Diseases Prevention Academy, a subspecialty of Indian Academy of Paediatrics, has written to Food Safety and Standards Authority of India to consider necessitating nutrient specific warning on labels of all packaged food. Talking about how the pandemic has worsened the obesity epidemic among Indian kids, Navi Mumbai-based paediatrician and incoming president of IAP, Dr Upendra Kinjawadekar said, “During the lockdown, children were not able to get any exercise, had increased screen time due to online classes and had access to a lot of junk food.” He said that labels on packaged food are often misleading and sometimes just outright disregards the labelling requirements.