Are you choosing to be unhealthy when you buy a packet of chips or a bottle of cola? Not necessarily. Research shows that the companies that produce ultra-processed foods — foods that have undergone industrial processing and contain additives and preservatives unavailable in kitchens — may be influencing your choice by smart speak on pocket-friendliness and even it being ‘healthy.’

The market for these foods is driven by convenience, hyper-palatability, some nutrient profiling and longer shelf lives — coupled with vigorous advertising. “These foods are addictive and companies are following the same template as the tobacco industry. Given their health impact, there is a need to control how they are advertised, which will lead to a decline in consumption,” says Dr Arun Gupta, convener of Nutrition Advocacy in Public Interest (NAPi).

The sales of ultra-processed foods in India have increased 40-fold from $ 0.9 billion in 2006 to nearly $38 billion in 2019.

With a growing burden of non-communicable diseases, a study recently published in the journal, BMJ Global Health, identified alcohol, tobacco, and ultra-processed foods as three of the most important commercial determinants of health. “(These) are often designed to be highly addictive and hyper-palatable, overriding an individual’s ability to limit consumption,” it said.

The study looked at six strategies or mechanisms of influence when it comes to ultra-processed foods. One, aggressive television and digital advertising geared towards children — products such as salty snacks, sugared beverages and confectionary items were advertised significantly more often on children’s channels than on mainstream channels in India. Two, school-based promotion, with companies ensuring availability in school canteens and providing branded educational material. Three, conducting CSR (corporate social responsibility) activities such as the ones by an instant noodles brand that has programmes for creating nutritional awareness and sustainable agriculture.

“While people are more aware about the dangers of ultra-processed foods now, it is still difficult to make the healthy choice. These products are widely available, including in school canteens. Our study on school environment also found that healthier options were costlier and difficult to store, which reduced their availability as compared to UPFs,” says Shalini Bassi, consultant, Public Health Foundation and the first author of the paper. “There are regulations by the FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) that prevent the sale of UPFs in the vicinity of schools but implementation is a challenge,” she adds.

Four, packaging and in-store display play an important role, with supermarkets and convenience stores strategically placing them at children’s eye level and near checkout counters to encourage impulse purchases. They also use brightly coloured packaging with cartoon mascots and collectible toys. Five, adding addictive agents, as revealed by an investigation by Swiss NGO Public Eye, that found baby formula in India and other low-income countries contained added sugar whereas ones in Europe didn’t. Six, wide availability of the products even in rural and remote areas.

Another study from New Zealand lists out several other factors in addition, such as UPFs reducing sensitivity to satiation signals, activating reward pathways in the brain similar to what is seen with substance addiction and also use of data from digital and social media platforms to deliver individualised nudge to upsell the products.

Dr Gupta says one of the most high-impact, feasible ways to control consumption of UPFs is to control advertising. “India has not adopted a policy definition for ultra-processed food — a definition for foods high in sugar, salt and fat content may be used instead — to control which products can be marketed and certain time periods when it should be avoided.”

Importantly, there is a need to have front-of-pack labels that can warn people to stay away from these food items.