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Government Plan for Processed Food: The government has expressed concern over the increasing use of packaged processed food in cities as well as rural areas. The Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council said that today even in villages, crisps are more easily available than fruits and vegetables.
New Delhi. ‘Kurkure’ is a product of Frito-Lay, a subsidiary of American multinational company PepsiCo. You too must have seen your child insisting on this many times. This favorite product of children, Kurkure, has now become the target of adults. That too, not just anyone, but a special officer of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (EACPM) Chairman S Mahendra Dev on Wednesday raised questions on processed products like Kurkure and said that nowadays even in rural areas, Kurkure is easily available compared to fruits and vegetables.
S Mahendra Dev, chairman of PM Modi’s Economic Advisory Council, said processed foods like crisps are more easily available than fruits and vegetables even in rural areas. He expressed the need to ensure market option of healthy food products for the people. Mahendra Dev said that industries need to look into this aspect and ensure that healthy products are available to the people of the country, so that good health can be ensured for them.
Why did you express concern about health?
He cautioned that if we ignore this issue, we will have to face problems like obesity due to excessive consumption of processed food and beverages. Citing official surveys, the PMEAC chairman said that processed food and beverages now account for 21 per cent of food consumption even in rural areas. However, in urban areas it will be only above 25 percent. This means that it is expanding more rapidly in rural areas than in urban areas. This is a matter of concern from health point of view.
Healthy snack options are important
Mahendra Dev said that there is a need to work together with the industry on the issue of processed foods to ensure that better options for healthy snacks are available in the market. Today, chips and crisps are more easily available than fruits and vegetables in rural areas. Therefore, we need to ensure that healthy options are available, especially for children, and healthy food items are made available to them from cities to villages.
How can this goal be achieved
When asked if there were any policy interventions planned in this regard, Mahendra Dev said that most of the efforts would focus on educating people and interacting with the industry. He said that today most of the working couples in the country are dependent on processed foods because their daily schedule does not allow them to cook food daily and this is a big health problem. Dev said in a seminar organized by the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation that there has been a lot of change in the consumption pattern in the last 10 years.
Decreasing share of grains and fruits
He said that even in rural areas today the share of grains and fruits is only 10 percent, which is quite low. Eggs and meat have reduced the portion of grains. PMEAC Chairman said that as the economy is moving towards new structural changes, there is a need to revise the base in important sectors every few years and new indices are being created to incorporate these changes. Our effort is that it would be better if these changes are focused on health.
