Recently, India's Samosa and Jalebi, which are easily available and liked by countrymen in every nook and corner of the country, were much discussed on social media. The reason for this was the letter of Punya Salila Srivastava, Secretary, Ministry of Health of India, in which she had issued an advisory, asking ministries, departments and autonomous institutions, to put up 'Oil and Sugar Board' in public places like cafeteria (canteen) and lobby, highlighting the hidden fat and sugar in Samosa, Jalebi, Vada Pav, Kachori (and also pizza and burger). After that, it faced the wrath of the people on social media. The Indian Samosa must have never been glorified on social media, so much as it was done post this advisory. Ministry later clarified that this instruction was not focused on any particular item. It can be understood that the problem of high fats, sugar and salt (HFSS) is not very much prevalent in fresh snacks like Samosa and Jalebi (and we can’t avoid sugar in Jalebi in any case),it’s actually with packaged food, which this directive has conveniently ignored. Due to the HFSS, various types of non-communicable diseases occur. Heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and many other NCDs not only have a huge adverse effect on people's health but also on their pocket. While mentioning fast food in the advisory of the Health Secretary, it is a bit odd to give the first example of samosa and jalebi. In fact, the fast food and packaged food that are often mentioned as the cause of non-communicable diseases (NCD) often include pizza, burger, Chinese, noodles, beverages, potato chips etc., but India's samosa and jalebi were never mentioned. It has been observed that excessive amounts of salt, sugar and fat are used in these fast foods and packaged foods, so that people, especially children, get addicted to these things. Health experts have often expressed concern about this.

It has to be understood that traditionally, from the common man walking on the road to the biggest industrialists, officers and leaders can be seen enjoying samosas and jalebis. Samosas are available for every pocket in the country. You can buy a samosa from two rupees to 200 rupees. The state of jalebi is such that every happiness in the country is expressed with jalebi. Recently, in some states, even before the final results of the elections were announced, jalebi was started being made in the Congress party office, which had to be stopped later.

Surprisingly, government has not yet been able to issue an order giving warning signals about products containing high fat, salt and sugar (HFSS), which are harmful to health, despite all the recommendations of experts. It is worth noting that these types of products are abundant in the packaged food being made by big companies, due to which NCDs are occurring in a big way, on which not only the government but also the general society is incurring huge expenses; and it is becoming the cause of death of lakhs of people. It is worth noting that the Food Regulator of India, FSSAI, had put forward a proposal of star rating for packaged food, two years ago. In this, there was a proposal to have a provision for rating from one star to five stars, where five stars means most suitable for health. The interesting thing was that there was no provision for giving any warning for harmful contents, on any product. Many experts objected to this proposal, saying that through star rating, products harmful for health will also be given star rating and the consumer will remain unaware of how harmful those food items are for health. Experts argued that most packaged food items contain excessive fat, salt and sugar. This happens because the manufacturers of these food items add these harmful ingredients so that consumers get addicted to it. Experts demanded that the process of star rating be stopped and a provision for giving warning signals be made. That is, consumers should be aware about harmful contents, such as excessive fat, salt and sugar.

After such pointed reactions, to the proposal of star rating, the proposal of star rating was shelved with the intervention of the Health Ministry then, and in its place a proposal was brought that these harmful ingredients should be written in bold letters on the packets. In such a situation, now people may start getting at least this information about packaged food that how many harmful substances are there in them. It has to be understood that in the whole world, except New Zealand and Australia, there is no provision of star rating in any country; in the rest of the world, where there is a provision of labeling on packaged food, that is, Front of Packet Label (FOPL) warning signals are being given. If the Health Ministry had to talk about the quality of oil, then that type of advisory should have been issued, and not by marking samosas and jalebis and warning about them at public places. The question here is why FSSAI, which comes under the Health Ministry, has not yet decided to issue a warning on packaged food with high fat, salt and sugar content which are definitely harmful to health. Moot question is why target desi samosas and jalebis while saying no word about harmful packaged food of big companies?