Indian Nutrition Rating
Source: Indian Express
GS II: Policies and Developmental Studies

What is discussed under Indian Nutrition Rating?

1. Key highlights of the Draft
2. Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI)

Why in News?

• The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has prepared a draft notification for front-of-pack labelling in order to discourage consumers from purchasing packaged food high in sugar, salt, and fat.
• The Indian Nutrition Rating (INR), like the star-rating system for energy efficiency of electronic equipment, will provide a 0-star rating to the unhealthiest food items and a 5-star rating to the best.

Key highlights of the Draft

• According to the draught notification, products will be scored based on:
  • Their calorie contribution
  • Level of saturated fat, sugar, salt, fruit and vegetables (FV), nuts, legumes, and millets (NLM), dietary fibre, and protein per 100 gm of solid or 100 ml liquid meals

Process

• Solid meals with a score greater than 25 receive 5 stars, while those with a score less than – (minus) 11 receive 5 stars.

  

• The INR system assigns a grade of ½ stars (least healthy) to 5 stars (healthiest) to the entire nutritional profile of packaged food.
• More stars imply that the food product is better positioned to meet the daily nutritional needs of humans.
• On the front of the pack, the logo must be placed near the product’s name or brand name.

Other indications

• Although it is not compulsory, the notification indicated that food manufacturers may provide interpretative information next to the star-rating emblem, such as:
  • Energy, sugar, saturated fat, and salt levels.
• Food firms must submit nutritional profiles of the items in question to FSSAI’s FoSCoS (Food Safety Compliance System) site to create the star-rating logo.

Exceptions

• Exempts from the star rating requirement:
  • Milk and milk products, whey, butter oil, ghee, vegetable oil and fat, fresh and frozen fruit and vegetables, fresh and frozen meat, egg, fish, flour, and sweeteners
• Carbonated beverages with no energy or sugar will likewise be ineligible for announcing the rating.

Significance

• According to an expert position paper published earlier this year, there was a shift in consumption patterns in various Latin American nations that imposed similar warning labels, with Chile reporting a 24% decline in sugary drink consumption.
  • As per the study, nutritional warning labels are more effective than traffic lights and Nutri-score labels, according to a meta-analysis of 100 research released last year.

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