The health of our nation

The response that Tukaram Mundhe’s campaign against unhygienic conditions in Maharashtra’s restaurants has evoked demonstrates how concerned Indians are with food safety.

But Mundhe’s campaign touches on just one aspect of food safety and cleanliness.

 

There are many other areas where food is toxic that receive too little attention possibly because regulators and those meant to enforce the regulations are too lazy, too weak or too corrupt.

 

   There are at least three other areas that deserve as much attention as the Mundhe crackdown.

 

   The first is food adulteration and the manufacture of fake food. For instance we have all applauded Mundhe’s campaign against so called analogue paneer. This is basically bogus paneer though bizarrely it is legal to call it ‘paneer’ as long as you use the term ‘analogue’ with it.

 

   I will come to analogue paneer but there is also fake and unsafe ‘paneer’ made from maida, palm or some other cheap oil, baking powder, detergent, discarded skimmed milk, soda bicarbonate and industrial sulphuric acid. It is made in small workshops all over India and sold as real paneer to credulous consumers and to the restaurant/ food stall sector.

 

   The Mundhe kind of crackdown targets restaurants that cook this ‘paneer’ which is good but does not go far enough. What about places that actually manufacture this ‘paneer’? You hear, once in a while, about a raid on a workshop but these raids miss at least 95 per cent of the manufacturers. Usually they pay off local authorities and are left alone.

 

   This is as true of most outfits that adulterate cooking oil, dal and other staples. There is no concentrated campaign against them and they flourish.

 

   As for analogue paneer, we should consider banning it completely. If it isn’t fully made from milk then it isn’t paneer of any kind. The government has already stopped people who make so called ‘ice cream’ from vegetable oil from calling it ice cream so why not extend the same principle to ‘cheese’ and ‘paneer’ made from vegetable fat? Why confuse consumers with meaningless terms like ‘analogue’?

 

   There is a second area of concern where food and good health collide. This has to do with products that are not, in themselves, poisonous but contain ingredients which can be harmful if taken in excess.

 

"Reuters reveals that the multinational food industry has successfully stymied the efforts of regulators in India even though it has agreed to labelling changes in other markets."

   A meticulously researched expose by the news agency Reuters (written by Aditya Kalra and Richa Naidu) released this week reveals that while we imagine that we are eating global food and drink products made by giant multinationals, in reality products sold in the Indian market can be different from and unhealthier than their foreign versions despite their international branding.

 

   For instance, Indian Fanta has three times the sugar of the British version. Indian Kit Kat has far less cocoa than the Australian version. Indian Maggi uses palm oil which is rich in saturated-fat while the UK version uses healthier sunflower oil. And so on.

 

   The multi-billion dollar multinationals defend some of these decisions on price grounds. And yes, they are right when they say it would cost more to use healthier ingredients. The prices of their products would go up as a consequence and sales would fall. But is that such a bad thing? For the multinationals and their profits, may be. But for the health of our nation? I doubt it very much.

 

   I am not in favour of banning food on the grounds that too much consumption could lead to bad consequences. All the multinationals need to do is to include health warnings about high levels of salt, sugar etc on the products.

 

   But even this has proved too much for multinationals who are content to profit from India but unwilling to include cigarette package style warnings on their labels. Reuters reveals that the multinational food industry has successfully stymied the efforts of regulators in India even though it has agreed to labelling changes in other markets. One argument offered was that if it had to put red warning labels on food products that had high levels of salt, fat and sugar the packaging would be awash in red because as much as 80 percent of the packaged foods would fall into that category.

 

   Obviously something needs to be done and the matter is now before the courts.

 

   As worrying as all this there is also a third area of concern. All over the world the movement against Ultra Processed Foods (UPF) is growing. Various health risks have been identified with factory manufactured foods that are basically made by machines with the help of chemicals. The anti ULP movement is growing in India and will soon enter the mainstream.

 

   For food multinationals abroad the campaign against ULPs has proved to be a real threat and many have gone out of their way to say they are simplifying their processes and using fewer chemicals.

 

   I am not a hard core adherent of the anti-ULP movement though it is no longer possible to deny that its central message is valid. It is also hard to be optimistic about the long term future of the multinational food industry.

 

   There are some parallels with the cigarette industry. For instance cigarette sales in America have dropped over 40 per cent in the last decade. A similar dip may be starting with ULPs. After years of growth in America sales have dipped or flattened. This makes India a vital market for multinationals because the campaign against ULPs has yet to take off. As a defensive position food multinationals are holding firm on the short term stand of fighting against labelling on sugar, salt and fat. Though Indian regulators have tried their best, one view is that the government is too scared of America to take any substantive action on the labelling issue.

 

   I don’t know if that is true. But judging by public anger about food safety and health any government that ignores these issues risks damaging itself. No nation should sit back and let itself be poisoned. And no government should allow this to happen.