Food brands in India mislead consumers with wrong labels: Study

Several leading food brands in India feature misleading nutritional information on their packages, according to a new report by a non-governmental science and environmental group.

For the study, carried out by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), researchers evaluated 16 major brands of popular food products including Nestlé Maggi, Haldiram’s Aloo Bhujia, Top Ramen noodles, PepsiCo Frito Lays, among others.

The researchers tested levels of fats, salt and carbohydrates in the products and found that even one servings of the food threatened maximum recommended daily intakes (RDI) by the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) and the WHO.

The NIN recommended daily intake for salt is at 6g, the WHO settles at 5g. A single 80g packet of Nestlé Maggi noodles alone contained 3.5g of salt, and the product also had a lot of empty calories – 70% of it was only carbohydrates.

The CSE researchers also found that Haldiram’s Aloo Bhujia and Top Ramen noodles had misleading nutritional information about the amount of trans fat.

According to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), a product is considered to be trans fat free only if it contains less than 0.2g of trans fat per serving.

Top Ramen Noodles claims that there is zero trans fat in the product; however, the study found that the product contained 0.7g in every 100g. Similarly, Haldiram’s Aloo Bhujia claims that there is zero trans fat, while the product contained 2.5g per 100g.

Till February this year, PepsiCo Frito Lay’s product labels said that the products were trans fat free but from the beginning of March the products ceased to be trans fat free, without informing consumers.

The study found 3.7g of trans fat per 100g in PepsiCo Frito Lay’s product belonging to March 2012 batch.

In addition, burgers and french fries were found to have high levels of fat, while carbonated drinks had high levels of sugar.

CSE deputy director general Chandra Bhushan said the study indicates that India needs stronger regulations that will reduce the quota of fats, sugar and salt in junk foods, and ones that will force companies to provide information to the public mandatorily.