NAPi’s Open Letter to Celebrities/PR Agencies/Managers/Advertising Agencies
We, the members of the Nutrition Advocacy in Public Interest (NAPi), a national independent think tank on nutrition and food policy, call upon you to pay attention to the following:
NAPi’s report “50 Shades of Food Advertising” shows many celebrities endorse unhealthy food products. https://bit.ly/462ZuYD
Promotion of unhealthy food products is associated with unhealthy dietary practices as these are mostly HIGH in Sugars/Salt/Fats and contain chemical additives. These are addictive in nature. Increased consumption of such food products is associated with worse health outcomes like obesity, diabetes, cancers and heart diseases (http://surl.li/sccqmm).
The Government of India’s National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) has issued “Dietary Guidelines for Indians”, (https://www.nin.res.in/dietaryguidelines/index.html#) which provide thresholds for “Nutrients of Concern” i.e. sugar, fat and salt in the food products (both solids and liquids), beyond which these are considered unhealthy. The WHO has also provided similar criteria.
Thresholds for Nutrients of Concern are:
a) Salt – Liquids: 175 mg/100 ml; Solids: 625 mg/100 gm
b) Added Sugar – Liquids: 2 g/100 ml (Total Sugar less than 30% of total energy)
c) Added Sugar -Solids: 3 g/100 g(Total sugar less than 10% of total energy)
d) Total Fat – less than 30% of total energy in solids and liquids.
NAPi hopes, using the above you can identify the unhealthy food products (beyond thresholds) before you endorse.
We also draw your attention to the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 Section (28) that defines “misleading advertisement” in relation to any product or service, “means an advertisement, which-…(iv) deliberately conceals important information;” and the Advertising Code Rule 7(7) “No advertisement shall be permitted which, …endangers the safety of children or creates in them any interest in unhealthy practices …”
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NAPi requests PR agencies, managers and advertisement agencies to make use of this above information before advising celebrities to endorse such products.
We would urge all celebs, their managers/PR/Ad agencies to refrain from advertising food beverage products which have higher amount of sugar/salt or fats than the thresholds suggested by the ICMR-NIN Dietary Guideline for Indians.
NAPi will keep a watch on the food advertisements for which self- declaration is certified.
Nutrition Advocacy in Public Interest (NAPi)
