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: Anyone who has had a hard time convincing foreign restaurateurs, say of Cajun provenance, that rice cooked in beef stock is not vegetarian, knows that Indians have outstripped everyone else at least on one food labelling frontier: whether we are supping outdoors or buying groceries, we demand clear indications on whether or not we are being served any animal ingredients. Even the most marginally urbanised of our diners have figured their way around the ‘dot’ language with ease. Green dot in green box equals vegetarian, whereas the redder stuff doesn’t.

But what about the other category of food labelling, the nutritional panels printed on packaged foods? According to a Nielson survey conducted in April, across 28,253 Internet users in 51 global markets, the country appears to be moving in the right direction. Around 71% of the Indian respondents claimed that they now take more notice of the information carried on food packages as compared to two years ago. Only 65% of the US consumers could boast the same.

As for those who could ‘mostly’ decode this data, the numbers stacked up thusly: 44% for the globe, 67% for the US and a respectable 59% for India. But what must be kept in mind is that Americans’ access to the Internet is not class driven to the same degree as in India, meaning that the US samples reflect a more elite leaning than in the Indian context. A surprising finding of the survey was that in a country with the largest diabetic population in the world, sugar appears quite low on the list of concerns for Indians. One explanation for this could be the way in which labelling is done here.

Check that packet of biscuits lying somewhere in your vicinity. As per regulations, the label should mention the energy value, protein, carbs, fat and so on available in every 100 gms of the product. The odds are that the amount of sugar, because it is so insignificant as compared to the amount of carbs, will not be mentioned. Yet you could be consuming 50-100% and beyond of your daily requirement of sugar in just one serving.