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Govt to watch sugar, salt and fat in food
The Health Ministry has rolled out a new policy that will oblige fast-food restaurants and processed-food manufacturers to attach labels about the amount of sugar, salt and fat in their products
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he Health Ministry has rolled out a new policy that will oblige fast-food restaurants and processed-food manufacturers to attach labels about the amount of sugar, salt and fat in their products.
The ministry's director of non-communicable disease control, Ekowati Rahajeng, said the new policy was part of a campaign to prevent non-communicable diseases.
'The number of people dying as a result of non-communicable diseases like hypertension, heart disease, cancer and diabetes is increasing every year. It is not only older people who are falling ill, but also many people in their 20s,' Ekowati said on Wednesday.
She said lifestyle rather than genetics determined people's susceptibility to these diseases.
People, especially those living in big cities, tended to consume food and beverages without knowing whether they contained high amounts of sugar, salt and fat, which were the main contributory factors in non-communicable diseases, she said.
'That's why we enacted Ministerial Decree No. 30/2013 last April to encourage manufacturers, especially those in the fast-food and processed-food industries, to place health information labels regarding sugar, salt and fat on their products,' she said. 'Within the next three years, manufacturers are expected to implement this regulation.'
Ekowati also said that people needed to get into the habit of reading processed-food labels to protect their health.
Iip Syaefulah, the head of clinical nutrition at the Health Ministry, said that according to the new regulation, people were advised to consume no more than 50 grams of sugar (four tablespoons), 5 grams of salt (one teaspoon), and 67 grams of fat (five spoonfuls) per day.
'This information will also be included in the health warnings on fast-food and processed-food products,' he said.
He said that when buying food and beverages, people tended to read the product labels only to determine if they were allowed on religious grounds (halal), their expiry date or contents.
'Whereas the most important thing is to read the nutritional information, which details the amount of sugar, salt and fat contained in the product,' he said. 'By reading this, people will know how much they consume per day.'
Meanwhile, the deputy of food safety and hazardous materials supervision at the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM), Tetty Helfery Sihombing, said manufacturers should place product information where it could easily be read.
'Products should give information like the product name, ingredients, weight, company name and address, production code and date, expiry date, registration number and whether the product is halal,' she said.
'If the public find products that don't carry that information, they can inform us,' she said. (tam)
