Ultra-processed Foods (UPF)

Rising Ultra-Processed Food (UPF) Consumption in India is becoming a Public Health Threat. Read here to learn more.

A new report highlights alarming trends in India’s dietary transition, showing that the rapid rise in ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption is damaging public health, accelerating chronic diseases, and deepening socio-economic inequalities.

As India urbanises and globalises, food patterns are shifting away from traditional, home-cooked diets toward packaged, ready-to-eat, and industrially processed food products.

This shift has far-reaching implications for nutrition security, disease prevalence, and public policy.

Ultra-Processed Food (UPF) Consumption Trends in India

The consumption of ultra-processed foods in India has expanded rapidly, increasing 40-fold between 2006 and 2019.

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This dramatic surge reflects growing availability, aggressive marketing, rising incomes, and lifestyle changes.

During the same period:

• Obesity rates almost doubled in both men and women.
• Lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, fatty liver disease, and hypertension saw parallel rises.
• Consumption inequality widened, as UPFs became cheap and widely accessible even in low-income households.

This shows that India is experiencing a nutrition transition, where undernutrition concerns coexist with rapidly rising obesity and non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

What Are Ultra-Processed Foods (UPFs)?

UPFs refer to industrially formulated food products made largely or entirely from substances extracted from foods, synthetic ingredients, or additives.

They undergo multiple stages of industrial processing to ensure long shelf life, strong flavour, and mass appeal.

Common Ultra-Processed Foods include:

• Instant noodles
• Packaged chips and snacks
• Sugary beverages
• Biscuits, confectionery
• Frozen ready-to-eat meals
• Flavoured drinks, processed breads
• Packaged breakfast cereals

Typical features of UPFs:

• High in added sugar, salt, and unhealthy fats
• Contain emulsifiers, artificial colours and flavours, stabilisers
• Designed to be hyper-palatable, promoting overeating
• Highly marketed and aggressively available

Health consequences:

UPFs are associated with an increasing burden of:

• Obesity
• Hypertension
• Cardiovascular diseases
• Fatty liver disease
• Metabolic syndrome
• Renal problems
• Early-onset diabetes
• Gastrointestinal inflammation

Why Is Ultra-Processed Food Consumption Increasing in India?

1. Aggressive Marketing

UPF companies invest heavily in:

• TV and digital advertising
• Influencer campaigns
• Promotions targeting children and adolescents

This normalises UPFs as daily snacks or even meal replacements.

2. High Corporate Profitability

UPFs are cheap to manufacture, easy to distribute, and highly profitable due to:

• Low-cost ingredients
• Long shelf life
• Mass consumer appeal
• Hyper-palatable design encouraging repeated consumption

3. Weak Regulations

Regulatory gaps allow:

• Misleading labelling
• Advertising to children
• UPF availability in schools
• Loose monitoring of unhealthy ingredients

4. Lifestyle and Demographic Shifts

Urbanisation and work patterns favour convenience foods:

• Busy schedules
• Increased dependence on packaged meals
• Limited cooking time
• Greater exposure to retail chains and delivery apps

Government Initiatives to Curb UPF Consumption

India has introduced multiple measures to safeguard public health:

1. Eat Right India Campaign (FSSAI): Promotes safe, healthy, and sustainable diets through behavioural change and public awareness.
2. Trans Fatty Acid (TFA) Regulation: FSSAI has capped industrial trans fats in food products to 2% of total oils and fats.
3. High GST on Sugary Beverages: Aerated drinks with sugar or flavouring face a 40% GST, making them more expensive to discourage consumption.
4. Revised Dietary Guidelines (2024): ICMR’s updated nutritional guidelines recommend minimising processed and ultra-processed food intake and emphasise whole foods.

These initiatives are important, but public health experts argue that they only scratch the surface of the systemic challenges.

Way Forward

To effectively curb UPF consumption and its health impacts, India needs a stronger, evidence-based regulatory framework.

1. Increase Taxes on UPFs: Introduce health taxes on high-salt, high-sugar, and high-fat foods, using revenue to subsidise healthier alternatives like millets, fruits, and vegetables.
2. Regulate Corporate Influence: Replace voluntary industry codes with mandatory government regulation for labelling, advertising, and formulation. Strengthen competition oversight to curb monopoly control of large food corporations.
3. Implement Front-of-Pack Warning Labels (FOPL): Simple, clear warning symbols for:

• High sugar
• High salt
• High fat

These have shown global success in countries like Chile and Mexico in reducing UPF purchases.

4. Restrict UPFs in Public Institutions

Ban or limit UPF availability in:

• Schools and colleges
• Hospitals
• Government offices
• Childcare centres (Anganwadis)

Ensuring that public institutions model healthy dietary environments.

Conclusion

The rapid rise in UPF consumption poses a serious public health challenge for India. With obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases rising sharply, unchecked access to UPFs can reverse decades of progress in nutrition and health.

While India has taken positive steps, such as implementing dietary guidelines, regulating trans fats, and taxing sugary beverages, much more needs to be done.

A comprehensive approach combining regulation, taxation, public awareness, school-based restrictions, and industry accountability is essential.

Ensuring that healthy food is accessible, affordable, and culturally rooted will be key to safeguarding the well-being of India’s population, especially children and economically vulnerable groups.

Related articles:

• Food processing and related industries in India
• Food fortification