NEW DELHI: The Press Council of India (PCI) has written to the Union Health Ministry seeking ‘specific comments’ on advertisements appearing in newspapers that promote products high in fat, sugar, and salt foods (HFSS), which leads to obesity and is a risk factor for diabetes, high blood pressure and heart diseases.
The letter by PCI Secretary Shubha Gupta to Union Health Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava said that they have received communication from Nutrition Advocacy in Public Interest (NAPi), which has sought amendment in the Norms of Journalistic Conduct to restrict advertising of HFSS food products.
“It is to be seen that the food items advertised by the print media are duly certified by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI),” the letter, which was also marked to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Ministry, said.
The letter dated April 3 shared the communication from NAPi, a national think-tank on nutrition consisting of independent medical experts, paediatricians, and nutritionists, with the ministry.
Giving reference to the communication from NAPi, which shared the definition of HFSS and Ultra-processed food products (UPFs), the letter said, “specific comment of the ministry is solicited as the concern raised by the NAPI vis-à-vis such advertisements being published in the newspapers.”
According to Dr Arun Gupta, Convener of NAPi, the letter to the Union Health Ministry resulted from one-year-long communications with PCI.
“While there is ever-increasing evidence from around the world about the health risk of diets containing ultra-processed foods products, to lead to non-communicable diseases like obesity and diabetes, I fail to understand why the government of India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is sitting on the National Multi-sector Plan drawn in 2017 to prohibit advertisements and marketing of HFSS food products and put interpretative warning labels on them,” Dr Gupta told TNIE.
The government released a National Multisectoral Action Plan (NMAP) in 2017 to prevent and control common NCDs. The target is to halt the rise of obesity and diabetes by 2025.
“A new randomised control trial done in Africa reveals that such diets negatively affect health within two weeks, leaving no doubt about the need for such regulations,” he added.
In its letter to the PCI, dated February 10, NAPI urged the PCI Chairperson, Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, to amend the norms of Journalistic Conduct to include a ban on advertisements of HFSS/UPFs. At the moment, the ban is on advertising alcohol.
In their argument, they cited the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) - National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) definition of HFSS and UPFs in the Dietary Guidelines for Indians. The guidelines clearly state that people should avoid HFSS and UPF food products. The guidelines also said that UPFs, laden with unhealthy additives, excess sugar, and refined grains, pose serious health risks.
The Economic Survey 2024-25 also highlighted the alarming rise in non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in India, directly linking them to the rapidly increasing consumption of UPFs.
“It explicitly calls for stricter advertising regulations to curb misleading promotions of UPFs/HFSS - an issue that falls directly under the ethical responsibility of the press and media,” the NAPi February letter said.
“Given this significant development, we urge you to expedite the process of placing our proposal before the PCI. The public’s right to factual and responsible advertising is at stake, and every delay allows misleading commercial interests to continue shaping dietary choices at the cost of public health. It is well known that children are twice more likely to consume a product that reaches them via marketing,” the letter by Dr Gupta said.
The Indian Council of Medical Research-India Diabetes (ICMR-INDIAB) survey, the most extensive study on diabetes and other metabolic NCDs in India, has said that amongst adults over 20 years, the prevalence of diabetes is 11.4%. The study coordinated by Madras Diabetes Research Foundation (MDRF) also said that the prevalence of pre‑diabetes is 15.3%, hypertension 35.5%, generalised obesity 28.6%, abdominal obesity 39.5% and hypercholesterolemia 24%.
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes kill 41 million people worldwide. Around 4.7 million people died of NCDs in India in 2017.