Food Labelling: An Educational Tool for Consumer Awareness

Nowadays, consumption of foods that are energy-rich but nutrient-poor has increased the rates of diet-related NCDs all over the world. Food labelling has been recognised globally as the most efficient tool for lowering the risk of diet-related NCDs. Since consumers’ attitudes regarding the nutritional aspect of foods are changing quickly, food labelling is gaining attention from governments all over the world as a prominent way to help consumers make healthy and informed choices. In India, the FSSAI has also recognised the need to educate consumers about the nutritional profile of food products. Considering the difficulties encountered by consumers in comprehending complex back-of-package information, it has planned to introduce a front-of-package labelling system that would be simple and effective in guiding consumers toward healthy food choices. This paper discusses several factors affecting food label usage, reasons for reading or not reading food labels, and the requisites of food labelling prescribed by the FSSAI. Further, the concept of front-of-package food labels, along with their different formats and status in India, has also been discussed. It should be noted that improving public health and well-being requires population-wide interventions like providing sufficient nutritional information on food labels to encourage a healthy diet as well as conducting educational campaigns to help consumers better understand food labels. Such interventions will not only protect public health but also uphold human rights and save the healthcare resources of the nation.