With the Indian food and beverage industry growing at a fast pace, the findings of the second edition of the India Access to Nutrition Spotlight would be a matter of concern for many as it shows healthy products still remain a small part of the fast-growing Indian food industry.
On Friday, the Access to Nutrition Initiative (ATNI) launched the second edition of the India Access to Nutrition Spotlight Index in New Delhi and the principal finding, following months of in-depth research, was that the largest food and beverage companies in India are providing only limited healthy products options to a population faced with major nutritional challenges.
“ATNI sees food and beverage companies in India showing their commitment to providing healthy food and engaging in a dialogue on how to support India’s Eat Right Movement. Lifestyle changes in India have caused a shift in consumer habits – from consumption of traditional food to more urban food habits consisting of packaged and processed foods, high in sugar, fat, and salt,” Inge Kauer, Executive Director of ATNI, said in a statement.
“In fact, India is among the top 10 consumers of fast food in the world. This, coupled with the fact that India is set to become the third-largest consumer economy, presents an enormous opportunity for food and beverage companies to make nutrition a core part of their business plans, and to adopt comprehensive, public and commercial strategies to address issues related to the burden of malnutrition in India,” he added.
In 2016, ATNI published the first India Spotlight Index, the first-of-its-kind independent national assessment to measure the nutrition-related policies and practices of India’s ten largest food and beverage manufacturers.
The second 2020 edition extends the scope of the Index by including the 16 largest food and beverage manufacturers in India – nine of which were previously assessed in 2016 – with the ultimate goal of driving the private sector’s performance on healthy, affordable diets and addressing under-nutrition, obesity and diet-related diseases.
