The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India recently began developing front-of-pack nutrition labels.
Published Nov 19, 2025 | 10:43 PM ⚊ Updated Nov 19, 2025 | 10:50 PM
Representational image. Credit: iStock
Synopsis: A Lancet paper series calls India as the world’s fastest-growing market for ultra-processed foods, with sales surging 40-fold (2006-2019) as obesity doubled. These products drive diabetes, obesity, heart disease, cancers and mental illness. Experts demand urgent regulation – ad bans, warning labels, school restrictions, and protection from industry lobbying to halt the crisis.
Walk into any corner shop in Hyderabad or Chennai today, and you can spot the shelves filled with packets of instant noodles, chips, biscuits, and bottles of fizzy drinks.
Children stand on tiptoes, reaching for breakfast cereals emblazoned with cartoon characters. Their parents scan QR codes for cashback offers on ready-to-eat snacks. The traditional glass jar of pickles sits in the corner, gathering dust.
This scene repeats across India, from Secunderabad to Salem. Between 2006 and 2019, something shifted in Indian kitchens. Sales of ultra-processed foods jumped from $0.9 billion to nearly $38 billion. That represents a 40-fold rise in just over a decade. During these same years, obesity rates doubled among both men and women.
A new three-paper series published in The Lancet on Wednesday, 19 November connects these two trends.
The research, written by 43 global experts, examines how industrial food products replace home-cooked meals and drive chronic diseases worldwide. India emerges as the fastest-growing market for these products.
Ultra-processed foods contain cheap industrial ingredients: hydrogenated oils, protein isolates, glucose-fructose syrup.
Manufacturers add stabilisers, emulsifiers, colourings, and flavouring substances. These additives make products last longer on shelves and taste more appealing than their raw ingredients suggest they should.
“The traditional meals are being fast replaced by hyper-palatable industrial UPF products via aggressive marketed and advertisement campaigns,” says Dr Arun Gupta, a paediatrician and co-author of the series.
“Yet India does not have exact data on UPF consumption. Our regulations are ineffective to restrict marketing.”
The Nova Food Classification System categorises these products as foods derived largely or entirely from industrial ingredients and additives, containing little or no whole food. Examples fill every aisle: soft drinks, packaged snacks, flavoured nuts, processed yogurts, fast food.
Research teams examined what happens when these products become diet staples. They found links to 12 health conditions. The list includes obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, kidney disease, gastrointestinal problems, depression, and premature death from all causes.
The health indicators paint a stark picture. Today, one in four Indians carries excess weight. One in ten lives with diabetes. One in seven has prediabetes. Two in five struggle with abdominal obesity. These figures come from the ICMR-INDIAB-17 study conducted in 2023.
Children show similar patterns. The National Family Health Survey tracked childhood obesity rates between 2016 and 2021. The numbers climbed from 2.1 percent to 3.4 percent in just five years.
“The Lancet Series highlights the danger to human health posed by the denaturing production processes of ultra-processed foods and their worldwide marketing,” notes Professor Srinath Reddy, Chancellor of PHFI University of Public Health Sciences.
“Diminished immunity, aggravated inflammation, a cluster of life-threatening chronic diseases and an unprecedented rise in overweight and obesity across the world are now shown to be the consequence of these commercial foods displacing healthy natural diets.”
The research documents how diets high in ultra-processed foods create nutrient imbalances, trigger overeating, increase body weight and fat mass, reduce intake of health-protective plant compounds, and raise exposure to toxic compounds and endocrine-disrupting chemicals.
Global corporations manufacture these products using industrial technologies that minimise costs. They design packaging, flavours, and textures to encourage repeat purchases. Marketing campaigns feature celebrities. Promotional offers flood digital platforms and television screens during prime time.
The strategy works. Global sales of ultra-processed foods reached $1.9 trillion. These products generate more profit than any other food sector. Between 1962 and 2021, publicly listed food companies paid out $2.9 trillion to shareholders. Ultra-processed food manufacturers alone distributed over half that amount.
“Powerful corporations – not individuals’ choices – are behind the global rise of ultra-processed foods,” explains Professor Simon Barquera from the National Institute of Public Health of Mexico.
“Through interest groups, these corporations often position themselves as part of the solution, but their actions tell a different story – one focused on protecting profits and resisting effective regulation.”
The Lancet series identifies 207 interest groups worldwide that lobby governments on behalf of lead corporations. These groups fund research, sponsor conferences, and participate in policy consultations. They make donations to political parties. They file lawsuits to delay regulations.
India has attempted some controls. Laws exist to check advertisements of foods high in fat, sugar, and salt. But loopholes remain wide enough for food companies to drive trucks through them.
The National Multi-sectoral Action Plan on Non-Communicable Diseases, published in 2017, called for amendments to advertising codes. It proposed prohibiting advertainment of unhealthy food products. Eight years later, these amendments remain unimplemented.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India recently began developing front-of-pack nutrition labels. The process invited stakeholders. 80 percent came from the food industry.
“Multi-stakeholder consultation risks weakening of health protection action,” warns Professor Reddy. He draws parallels to tobacco control, which required protecting policymaking from corporate interference.
“UPF are advertised addictions, which can lead to many marketed maladies. A ban on their advertising and sponsorship is needed, especially due to the pervasive danger of celebrity endorsements.”
The authors propose seven actions for India.
First: Define ultra-processed foods and foods high in fat, sugar, and salt in law. Harmonise these definitions with dietary guidelines from the Indian Council of Medical Research and the National Institute of Nutrition.
Second: Ban advertisements for these products, at least between 5:30 am and 9:00 pm.
Third: Mandate warning labels on front-of-pack nutrition labels.
Fourth: Restrict ultra-processed foods in schools, hospitals, canteens, and social feeding programmes.
Fifth: Establish mechanisms to prevent conflicts of interest in policymaking. The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control’s Article 5.3 offers a template.
Sixth: Track consumption through national monitoring systems. Collect data regularly through surveys.
Seventh: Seek support from UN agencies and donors without conflicts of interest.
“India must act immediately to take action and cut the consumption of UPFs to aim for halt in obesity and diabetes in coming years,” Dr Gupta emphasises.
“Given that India is fastest in sales growth and the evidence of poor health outcomes, India needs to frame UPF as a priority health issue.”
The Economic Survey of India 2024–25 urged stronger regulation of food labelling and marketing. It noted that voluntary self-regulation fails to protect public health.
The Lancet series argues that telling people to eat better accomplishes little when shelves stock mostly processed products and fresh foods cost more. Change requires coordinated policies that reduce production, restrict marketing, limit availability, and expand access to minimally processed foods.
“Improving diets worldwide requires policies tailored to each country’s unique situation and how entrenched UPFs have become in people’s daily eating habits,” says Professor Marion Nestle from New York University.
“While priorities may differ, urgent action is needed everywhere to regulate ultra-processed foods alongside existing efforts to reduce high fat, salt, and sugar content.”
The researchers emphasise that front-of-pack warning labels currently represent the only approach shown to substantially reduce intake of unhealthy food products. Countries like Colombia already mandate such labels on foods and beverages that exceed thresholds for fat, sugar, salt, or contain non-nutritive sweeteners.
Brazil offers another model. Its national school feeding programme eliminated most ultra-processed foods. By 2026, it will require 90 percent of food served to be fresh or minimally processed.
Prof Carlos Monteiro from the University of São Paulo, who developed the Nova classification system in 2009, frames the challenge clearly: “The growing consumption of ultra-processed foods is reshaping diets worldwide, displacing fresh and minimally processed foods and meals. This change in what people eat is fuelled by powerful global corporations who generate huge profits by prioritising ultra-processed products, supported by extensive marketing and political lobbying to stop effective public health policies to support healthy eating.”
The series calls for a coordinated global response similar to efforts against the tobacco industry. This means safeguarding policy spaces from lobbying, ending industry ties with health organisations, and building advocacy networks.
“We are currently living in a world where our food options are increasingly dominated by UPFs, contributing to rising global levels of obesity, diabetes and mental ill-health,” notes Dr Phillip Baker from the University of Sydney.
“Our Series highlights that a different path is possible – one where governments regulate effectively, communities mobilise, and healthier diets are accessible and affordable for all.”
Back in that corner shop, the child clutches a packet of chips. The parent scans the QR code. The cash register beeps. Outside, a billboard shows a cricket star holding an energy drink. The cycle continues, unless policy intervenes.
(Edited by Amit Vasudev)
