NEW DELHI: In a major development, the centre has directed all states not to use refined sugar, foods high in fat, salt, and sugar (HFSS), preservatives, colours, and flavours in supplementary nutrition provided to children, pregnant women, lactating mothers, and adolescent girls.
The advisory came after the Women and Child Development (WCD) Ministry found that the contents of Take Home Rations (THR) and Hot-Cooked Meals (HCM) across states and UTs provided to children, pregnant women, lactating mothers, and adolescent girls contain a high proportion of sugar, salt, and other items.
The detailed advisory issued by the WCD Ministry, a copy of which is with this paper, said that while providing the HCM and THR to different categories of beneficiaries under the Mission Poshan 2:0, the states should not use refined sugar and should use only jaggery for sweetening if needed.
“Inclusion of added jaggery should be restricted to less than 5% of total energy to avoid excessive intake of discretionary calories,” the advisory issued by WCD Deputy Secretary Jyotika said.
“Use of foods high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) should be avoided for all age and gender groups as recommended by WHO and Dietary Guidelines for Indians. Use of salt may be limited,” the advisory dated April 17 said.
The ministry also said that states and UTs may consider designing THR recipes without adding salt and sugar so that the beneficiaries may use them according to their taste or preference.
Welcoming the step, Dr Arun Gupta, Pediatrician and Convenor of Nutrition Advocacy in Public Interest (NAPi), a national think-tank on nutrition consisting of independent medical experts, paediatricians, and nutritionists, said the advisory was “long overdue.”
“For the first time, the WCD ministry has acknowledged that added sugars, salt, and HFSS (high fat, salt, sugar) items in THR and HCM are a real concern. If implemented in letter and spirit, this will protect millions of children, pregnant women, and adolescent girls from diet-related non-communicable diseases,” he told this paper.
Dr Gupta also urged the central government to include the definition of HFSS in supplementary advisory. “While the concerns are expressed on the use of preservatives, colours, and flavours, it might be useful to advise avoidance of pre-packaged foods for all infants, young children and adolescents as they contain such ingredients that are mostly high in sugars/salt or fats.”
According to Neelmani Singh, a public health nutrition expert, the government’s push to eliminate added sugar from Take Home Rations under Mission Poshan 2.0 is a heartfelt effort to give kids a healthier start in life. “It’s about protecting them from obesity, diabetes, and other health issues down the road while teaching them to enjoy food that’s good for them,” said Singh, who added that he wrote several letters to the WCD minister Annapurna Devi on this issue.
The guidelines also asked states to reduce the number of sweet recipes served in morning snacks and HCM.
The states were asked to ensure that the ingredients used to produce supplementary nutrition are safe and comply with all the applicable provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Regulations, 2011.
The foods for infant nutrition (foods intended for children up to the age of two years) should also be free from preservatives, added colours, flavours and other synthetic ingredients and should comply with the provisions of Food Safety and Standards (Foods for Infant Nutrition) Regulations, 2020, said the advisory addressed to the chief secretaries or principal secretaries dealing with Integrated Child Development Services/Poshan Abhiyan of all states/UTs.
It added that only emulsifiers permitted under the Food Safety and Standards (Foods for Infant Nutrition) Regulations, 2011, should be used.
The advisory said that while reviewing the nutrition norms for supplementary nutrition (Schedule II of the National Food Security Act (NFSA), which outlines the nutritional standards for various categories of beneficiaries, the ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), in their technical report have recommended that under supplementary nutrition (THR, Morning Snacks and HCM), inclusion of refined sugar/jaggery should be restricted to maximum 5- 10% of total energy intake to avoid excessive intake of discretionary/fattening calories. Similarly, adding salt may also be limited to the minimum required.
Quoting WHO, the ministry said that both adults and children should reduce their intake of free sugars to less than 10% of their total energy intake.
The Dietary Guidelines for Indians, 2024, by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-NIN, Hyderabad, also recommend no added sugar for children under two years of age, and sugar should be less than 5% of the total energy requirements for the day as part of balanced diets for all other age and gender groups, including pregnant women.
Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0, also known as Poshan 2.0, is an Integrated Nutrition Support Programme that aims to combat malnutrition among children, adolescent girls, pregnant women, and lactating mothers.
To address various gaps and shortcomings in the ongoing nutrition programme and to improve implementation as well as to accelerate improvement in nutrition and child development outcomes, the existing scheme components were re-organized under Poshan 2.0 under which nutrition support for POSHAN through Supplementary Nutrition Programme (SNP) for children of the age group of six months to six years, pregnant women and lactating mothers (PWLM); and Adolescent Girls in the age group of 14 to 18 years in Aspirational Districts and North Eastern Region (NER) is provided.