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ShareMumbai: Consumer activists have been keeping a watch on the increasing number of ads of food products and nutritional supplements that claim to give health and longevity and several other benefits, most of which have no scientific backing.
Consumers, looking for quick-fire solutions to all their problems, find such ads inviting. As a result, such products fly off the shelves at an alarming speed and their manufacturers are laughing all the way to the bank.
Not any more. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), a new body set up to take care of the huge market in foods and to regulate their standards, has decided to look into the practices of manufacturers of foods and beverages, which claim to bestow their patrons with extraordinary powers.
The government has drawn up a code to regulate the marketing and promotion of "health foods" to consumers, which envisages a strict scrutiny on the misleading and/or misrepresenting statements made by manufacturers to market their products.
From a scientific viewpoint, most food supplements and nutraceuticals (a newly-coined word encompassing nutrition + pharmaceuticals) contain only vitamins, minerals and proteins, which are available in commonly eaten food by most average persons.
Further, these nutraceuticals are sourced from those very foods, processed and converted into powders or liquids (often at great costs), which can be easily packed and transported. Fancy packaging and heavy advertisement add glamour to the product, which is then endorsed by celebrities who claim that a certain product is the secret of their energy and is responsible for their success in life.
Research all over the world has shown that the average individual who eats a reasonably balanced diet regularly cannot really benefit from such products which claim to add to strength and vitality. In fact, it is those who do not eat two square meals a day, largely due to socio-economic reasons, who need nutritional supplements to make up for their deficiencies of vitamins and minerals.
The tragedy in this situation is that the real solution lies in eating a meal where the nutrition is available rather than the expensive nutraceuticals which are beyond the reach of a person who cannot afford a meal in the first place. Nutraceutical manufactures also play on the fears of people. The greatest con game in the false and misleading ads for such tonics is those targeted at children and the younger generation. Increase in height, building up a better body, better skin and stronger bones plus a host of other benefits are attributed to intake of certain products, which really have no role to play in such events.
Young people, carried away by their favourite celebrity's endorsement of such products, fall prey to these allurements and in turn this leads to unjust enrichment of the companies indulging in such unfair practices. If the FSSAI is given the teeth to carry out the mandate enunciated in the new code, all this will come to an end in the months to come.
