What's happening to India’s public health policies?

While the India-UK Free Trade Agreement ("UKFTA"), entering into force on July 24, 2025, is a cause for celebration and economic optimism, there’s a silent underdog in this story that is not being talked about enough - the long-term consequences of increased imports of unhealthy, ultra-processed foods.

The UKFTA allows for the import of a wide range of processed foods: chocolates, confectioneries, breakfast cereals, sweetened beverages, packaged snacks, and ready-to-eat meals. All of this will now enter the Indian market at much cheaper prices thanks to tariff cuts and smoother logistics. This also means that everything from big-name brands to budget versions of these products from the UK will flood Indian supermarkets and online platforms.

At first glance, this seems like a win especially for those consumers  who are on a tight budgets and want variety. But it comes with a serious downside: making high-fat, high-sugar, high-salt ("HFSS") foods widely accessible to a population that is already battling rising rates of obesity, diabetes, and other lifestyle diseases.

And this is not the first time. After India’s economy opened up in the early 2000s, we saw global food giants enter our markets in a big way. Two decades later, the results are visible. Childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes have skyrocketed, especially in communities with little awareness or access to healthier alternatives. We are now seeing a repeat of the Mexico-NAFTA pattern, where post-liberalization, ultra-processed foods rapidly replaced traditional diets, and the country saw a major spike in NCDs.

Sure, India has started taking small steps like setting up sugar boards and issuing guidelines on what kind of food can be sold in school canteens. But if we stop there, we are truly missing the bigger picture. The real world is not just school campuses. The exposure to junk food starts much earlier and goes far beyond the classroom.

If India wants to protect its people, especially its youth, we need real, practical solutions that go beyond tokenism.

In my view, the answer lies in the two A’s:

1. Awareness, and

2. The American Story

Let’s start with awareness.

It is important that the common man who is picking up groceries to whip up a meal after a long day at work can quickly and easily understand what he is buying. Front-of-pack labelling ("FOPL") is essential. The FSSAI had actually proposed FOPL in 2022, but after pushback from the food industry, it was diluted into a Health Star Rating ("HSR") system. This HSR also still remains in process of implementation. But this star-based system is also criticised for lacking real value for India. It’s too vague and sometimes even confusing. For instance, a sweetened juice might get more stars than a traditional Indian snack just because of how the algorithm is set. 

What we need is clear and blunt labelling. The kind that tells you upfront how much added sugar, salt, fat, or preservatives you’re about to consume. Brands like that of popular Youtuber "Food Pharmer", are doing this voluntarily. We need that to be the norm, not the exception.

And there’s proof that this works. A 2021 WHO-backed study found that when front-of-pack warning labels like black boxes or traffic-light systems are used, they can reduce the purchase of unhealthy foods by up to 25%. Chile saw positive results just one year after introducing mandatory warning labels — sugary drink sales dropped, and public awareness went up.

Now for the second A - the American story.

India does not need to invent the wheel. It just needs to look at how other countries, especially the US, are regulating sugar. In 2016, the FDA made it mandatory for brands to list added sugar separately, with a daily value percentage. Cities like New York and Berkeley have gone even further to tax sugary drinks, limit their size, and even mandating warning signs on advertisements. Meanwhile, in India, we still allow sugary breakfast cereals to be marketed to kids using cartoon characters. 

While the UKFTA may bring in cheaper food products, it also brings in HFSS brands with deep pockets and zero accountability for public health damage. We can't just sit back. This FTA should not just be a green signal for more trade, it should be a wake-up call for India to urgently implement a Domestic HFSS Policy Framework - a set of rules that ensure that while imports rise, public health doesn't sink.

While we can’t control what comes in, we can control how it’s labelled, marketed, and sold once it is here.