CSE report comes down hard on junk food in schools

The research and advocacy organisation Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has called for a ban on junk food in schools and the regulation of advertisements promoting its consumption.

Children are not the best judges of their food and they are aggressively targeted by advertisements and seduced by celebrity endorsements, says a new CSE report titled “Junk Food Targeted at Children, Regulatory Action Required to Limit Exposure and Availability”.

The CSE has put together this report to fill the gaps in the suggestions made by a committee appointed by the Delhi High Court in a case filed by an NGO, which demanded a ban on junk food.

The committee, which submitted its report earlier this year, decided to only “restrict” junk food advertising instead of banning it; did not propose advertising regulation and felt junk food should be banned only within 50 metres of schools instead of the 500 yards (457 metres) put forth by the petitioner, says Amit Khurana of CSE. The case will be heard on August 6.

The CSE report suggests stringent steps to curb junk food. It demands that online advertisements, sponsorship, direct marketing and other emerging sales and promotional ventures should be regulated.

Countries have imposed “fat” taxes or soda taxes on junk food but CSE demands that junk food be banned in schools and areas within 500 yards. It says there must be a canteen policy to provide nutritious food; regulation of promotion of junk food targeted at children, establishing of stringent norms for unhealthy ingredients like trans fatty acids, and encouraging of physical activity among children.

It also suggests a scoring-based nutrient profiling model practised in the United Kingdom where points are allocated on the basis of nutrient content in 100 grams of food or drink.

While a 10 to 12-year-old moderately active child needs up to 30 grams of sugar and salt up to five grams, processed foods rich in fats, salt, sugar and preservatives pose a health risk. A cross sectional study among 400 school children in Chennai in 2013 found that the total prevalence of hypertension was 21.5 per cent.Unless strong regulation is in place to control the availability and exposure of junk food to children, consumption will increase, warns CSE.

The World Health Organisation says that the number of overweight or obese infants and young children (zero to 5 years) increased from 31 million globally in 1990 to 44 million in 2012. The worrying aspect is that a vast majority of overweight children live in developing countries, where the rate of increase has been over 30 per cent higher than that of developed countries.

The WHO predicts that if current trends continue, the number of overweight or obese infants and young children globally will increase to 70 million by 2025.

Globally, countries have put in place certain norms like banning junk food in schools, like in the U.S.A, U.A.E, England, Canada; regulating advertisement and promotion (Canada, England, South Korea, Peru, France) and imposing taxes (Finland, France, Mexico, Peru).