Editorials: 16-July-2025

 

The Hindu Editorials

More than symbolic: On curbing unhealthy food intake

Legislative measures to curb unhealthy food intake are a must

July 16, 2025

In a welcome move, the Health Ministry has directed all government departments to display oil, sugar and trans-fat content in everyday Indian snacks such as samosas, jalebis, vada pavs and laddoos in a bid to highlight the health risks of their consumption on a regular basis. The campaign will be piloted (1) in AIIMS Nagpur and then rolled out to other cities. The move comes two months after the CBSE directed all affiliated (2) schools to establish ‘sugar boards’ to monitor and reduce the sugar intake of children. These will list information on the recommended daily sugar intake, the sugar content in commonly consumed foods, health risks associated with high sugar consumption, and healthier dietary alternatives. The initiatives have been driven by studies that provide evidence of increasing obesity trends in India. As in the NFHS data, obesity had increased from nearly 15% to 24% in men and from 12% to nearly 23% in women between 2005-06 and 2019-21. Since the amount of oil and sugar in Indian snacks is not apparent (5) — and, hence, often overlooked — these initiatives will serve to fill the gap and act as “visual behavioural nudges (3)”, much like the pictorial warnings on tobacco products. However, building awareness alone cannot bring about behavioural changes, especially in the absence of essential legislative (4) measures.

Surprisingly, while the Health Ministry has targeted Indian snacks, nothing has been done over the years to introduce clear front-of-package labels to caution (6) people about unhealthy packaged food items, and regulate the advertising, marketing and promotion of unhealthy food to children. Also, levying (7) additional tax on food products with high levels of fat, sugar, and salt (HFSS) can further reduce consumption, as seen in some countries. As in the national multisectoral action plan for prevention and control of common non-communicable disease (2017-22), the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) Regulation was required to be amended (8) for inclusion of front-of-pack labelling and detailed nutrient labelling. The FSSAI (Packaging and Labelling) Regulation was amended in 2020; on July 15, the Supreme Court of India again directed the agency to execute this label on packaged food. For front-of-pack labels on HFSS food and beverage products to become a reality, the FSSAI has to first define the upper limits for sugar, salt and total fat, which have not been finalised and approved so far. A 2022 study found that warning labels outperformed (9) all other forms of front-of-pack labelling in identifying unhealthy products. A study by the ICMR-NIN found that warning labels and nutri-star ratings helped deter (10) the consumption of even moderately unhealthy foods. Measures to build awareness without essential legislative measures to curb unhealthy food intake will not be much more than symbolic.

 ​Pain remains: On inflation

Fall in food prices is only one part of the inflation story

July 16, 2025

The continued fall in inflation to a 77-month low of 2.1% in June 2025 should serve as a significant source of relief for policymakers (1). The general public, however, would not be too thrilled. There is some good news for them, but also a significant dose of pain. Food inflation, for example, saw a significant easing, although that too is a seasonal effect rather than a structural (2) one. Food and beverage prices contracted (3) 0.2% in June 2025 on a high base of 8.4% in June last year. Key items such as vegetables, pulses, spices and meat saw prices falling in June compared to their levels last year. But food is not all that people spend their money on. The data reveal that there were several items and services of common consumption that saw inflation quickening (4) in June. The education and stationery segment saw inflation quicken to 4.4% in June, the highest in 15 months. This was driven by a jump in the prices of school, college, and private tuition. Inflation in the health-care category, too, was at a 15-month high in June. Compounding this, the personal care segment saw inflation jumping to a blistering (5) 14.8% in June, the eighth month of double-digit inflation in the last nine months. Products such as soap, toothpaste, shampoo and sanitary napkins — items of daily or regular use and by no stretch luxuries — have become more expensive. So, overall, food is cheaper, but nearly everything else is more expensive.

This leads to an important policy question, one that has been asked several times before: is the headline inflation data adequately capturing the price rise the average Indian faces? The food basket itself carries a 46% weight in the overall Consumer Price Index (CPI), meaning that any change in this category has an inordinate (6) impact on the headline number. The recent Household Consumption Expenditure Surveys show that food comprises a much smaller share of about 30% in the expenditure of households. Bringing the CPI weight of food down to align with this will allow the overall CPI to be more representative (7). To be fair, that process is on, with the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in the process of updating the CPI. The CPI base year — so far set as 2011-12 — is being updated to a more recent time period, and the weights of the different categories are also being revised (8). This update cannot happen fast enough, as even monetary policy is currently dependent on this outdated and unrepresentative measure. In the meantime, it is important not to get swayed (9) by the fall in the headline number itself. The felt experience of the average Indian is described in the details, and it is still a painful (10) one.

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