Proper nutri labels soon - Food industry task force promises to resolve unlabelled school products concerns
Published:Friday | March 30, 2018 | 12:00 AMCarlene Davis
Chairman of the National Food Industry Task Force, Professor Fitzroy Henry, is advising parents of students who consume the products distributed by the Nutrition Products Limited (NPL) that even though it is going to take some time to provide proper labelling, it is being worked on.
"Proper food labelling is one of the core aspects of the task force, so it's a big activity for us and we are working on it," said Henry.
Last week, The Sunday Gleaner reported that concerns were raised about the unlabelled bag beverages being distributed in schools across the country.
Henry said he understood the concerns and stressed that the task force was committed to ensuring that Jamaicans were informed about what they were consuming.
"I can't tell you exactly when but we are working as hard as we can to get labels on products across the board. We have to talk with our industry partners; it's not something that is unilateral. We will discuss with them to see what challenges they have so that we can come up with a reasonable time frame," said Henry.
JUST VERY SWEET COLOURING
One parent said she has encouraged her son who attends a primary school not to consume the juice drink because of the high sugar content.
"I have tasted many of the products so I have a first-hand understanding, though I'm not a nutritionist, but with this product you taste the sugar before you taste any other flavour," said April James.
Because the product is presented in a plain, unlabelled plastic bag, there is no indication of what type of juice drink is being consumed.
"I don't know what flavour they are, it's just colouring and it's very sweet, it gives me a headache," said James.
"I give my son water to take to school along with money to buy healthier beverages. At least those drinks are labelled and I know who to go to and where to go if he's affected by any one of them."
Communications manager for the Early Childhood Commission, Monique Pryce, said while she does not wish to express any views regarding NPL, there is a policy regarding nutrition for early-childhood students.
"Nutrition is standard seven of the 12 Operating Standards for early childhood institutions (ECI), which requires ECIs to provide children in their care with nutritious meals and model good nutritional practices for children and families. The regulations state that the operator of an ECI shall take steps as are necessary to ensure that health, sanitation, nutrition and disaster plans are in place for children and staff," said Pryce.
She said the Ministry of Education is working on a comprehensive school-feeding policy for all school-aged children.
"The Ministry of Health has an infant and young child feeding policy now at Cabinet awaiting approval. We are collaborating with them to increase our focus on the importance of nutrition in the first 1,000 days (of a child's life)," said Pryce.