Ministry collaborates with industry to promote Nutri-level education
The ministry considers this education important as an effort to prevent non-communicable diseases, especially diabetes.
The Director of Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases (P2PTM) at the ministry, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, said here on Friday that lifestyle, including dietary habit, is one of the risks of non-communicable diseases.
According to the 2023 Indonesian Health Survey (SKI), consumption of sweet drinks exceeding the limit continues to increase.
“The average sugar consumption of Indonesians in a single drink has reached 50 percent of their needs,” said the director at a joint press conference with the Indonesian Endocrinology Association (PERKENI) and Kalbe Farma.
Therefore, in the initial stages of Nutri-level education for business actors and the public, sugar was the main focus of the labeling.
The products that are initially focused on are ready-to-eat foods and drinks, because for packaged foods and drinks, the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) is still preparing the regulations.
She explained that Nutri-level was designed to make it easier for people to understand the sugar, salt, and fat content of a product. While nutritional information has been available, the public hasn’t fully understood it.
She said that in the Nutri-level design, there are four levels, namely A is dark green, B is light green, C is yellow, and D is red.
Surveys show that Indonesians understand a scale of values based on the alphabet. Furthermore, they are more familiar with green, yellow, and red, as they are associated with traffic lights.
Tarmizi also mentioned that the sugar content in the product is calculated as a percentage, because it is easier to understand than milligrams (mg).
“Because it was just launched yesterday, we’re currently in the advocacy process, especially with large industries. However, we’re not ruling out the possibility for medium-sized and small-scale industries to participate,” she said.
“The regional government or perhaps the central government can facilitate this, because the difficult part is laboratory testing,” she said.
With this Nutri-level education, she believes the industry is expected to adapt and provide more varied products, and consumers can change their behavior to be healthier.
On the same occasion, Kalbe Farma Director Mulia Lie said they are ready to support the government’s policy and are committed to providing quality and nutritious products, as well as educating consumers through appropriate nutrition labels.
“So, we’re very pleased that the government has launched this educational program. We’re delighted. Because, for us, education is about promoting prevention rather than curative treatment,” he said.
Lie said that he was one of the stakeholders invited to discuss this nutrition label.
Regarding his company, he committed that the company would immediately follow the initiative after first using up the existing packaging stock.
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Translator: Mecca Yumna Ning Prisie, Katriana