NEW DELHI: The Nutrition Advocacy in Public Interest-India (NAPi), a national think-tank of independent medical experts, paediatricians and nutritionists, has again written to Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan against promoting a biscuit brand which they claim is unhealthy.
They have also requested him not to endorse any unhealthy food products,which can be labelled as ultra-processed food products, in the future too.
The think-tank had earlier written to Big B, as he is famously known as, on December 28 for endorsing ‘Britannia Milk Bikis.’“The NAPi sincerely requests you to refuse this as well as any future endorsements of unhealthy food products, which can be labelled as ‘ultra-processed food products or high fat/sugar and salty foods (HFSS),” said the letter, dated Jan 11.
The letter, which was signed by members of the advocacy group, also included an article which gives information on why ultra-processed food products (UPFs) are harmful to human health.“Simply it means any food product containing more than 10 per cent sugar or saturated fat is HFSS. You can make a conscious decision whether to endorse a food product or not, which might be harmful to human health,” said the letter.
The letter was also signed by Dr Vandana Prasad, community paediatrician, joint convenor of Jan Swasthya Abhiyan and National Convenor for Public Health Resource Network (PHRN).Dr Arun Gupta, paediatrician and convener of NAPi, and one of the letter’s signatories told this newspaper, that they have written again to the Bollywood star as they have not received any response from him.
He said in 2014, Bachchan had renounced his association with Pepsi due to its health implication on children. In 2018, he had also denied association with Horlicks on the same ground. “We are hopeful he will disassociate himself again this time too from promoting such unhealthy food products.”In their earlier letter to Bachchan on December 28, the NAPi had said they learned of his “association with Britannia Milk Bikis Biscuits through a recent KBC Junior commercial aired on television, YouTube, and other social media platforms”.
“We are shocked and surprised to learn that you have chosen to endorse ‘Britannia Milk Bikis’ Biscuits on a children’s TV programme. We want to draw attention to the fact that the advertisement for the biscuit brand misleads consumers by equating an unhealthy, ultra-processed and pre-packaged food product which is an industrial formulation, with real foods like ‘atta roti’ and ‘a glass of milk’,” they further said.