Time Digital Report: Speakers at a seminar have said that unhealthy and undernourished food is one of the health problems around the world nowadays. 70% of deaths in Bangladesh are caused by non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which are linked to food habits.

They also said, along with urbanization and changes in lifestyles of the people, dietary habits of children have undergone major changes. Advertising campaign or awareness alone cannot be an effective measure. Taxation, improved labeling and packaging systems, and market regulation can be effective ways to discourage unhealthy eating, they added.

Center for Law and Policy Affairs-CLPA, ARK Foundation, Public Health Law Network and Citizen Network jointly arranged the seminar titled “Public Health Policies to Promote Healthy Diet: Challenges and Way Forward” at Hotel Bengal Blueberry in Gulshan-2 of the capital on Thursday (December 21, 2023).

It was said in the seminar that Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA) has formulated regulations to control Trans fats, and the BFSA is working to curb misleading advertising. However, it is important to make consumers aware of healthy food intake, which should be brought into the education system. Besides, healthy food habits should be developed at home.

The seminar was addressed by project director at Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA) and member (public health and nutrition) Manjur Morshed Ahmed, public health expert Md. Fahimul Islam Vital Strategies, and professor of economics of Dhaka University and executive director of ARK Foundation Dr. Rumana Huque.

Kamrunnisa Munna of CLPA moderated the event, while public health and environment policy expert Advocate Syed Mahbubul Alam Tahin presented the keynote at the seminar. It was addressed, among others, by project director at Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) Dr. AKM Shamim Alam, executive director of Gram Bangla Development Committee AKM Maksud, deputy secretary of Law Ministry Rumana Yasmin Ferdousi, Dr Mohammad Nazrul Islam Bhuiyan of BCSIR, associate professor of Bangladesh University of Health Sciences (BUHS) Palash Chandra Banik, and associate professor of Dhaka International University Md Bazlur Rahman.

Representatives form JICA, Ward Bank Group and GAIN, Article 19, Savar Municipality, URB Bangladesh were also present at the event.

The speakers emphasized on awareness of production and marketing in accordance with the Food Safety Act-2013 while issuing license. Besides, people who are producing food in the restaurant or hotel, need to be trained in the production of safe food.

They said, “We need to think more broadly about public health. The health ministry and departments concerned are making people aware about nutritious food, the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) is producing food items, and the Railways Ministry and Shipping Ministry should come forward to bring these nutritious food at low cost. It is possible to develop the public health system with such integrated initiatives of each department.”

The speakers said that public health is given importance in Articles 16, 18, 37, 43 of the Constitution, but lack of implementation hindering the process. Public health should be prioritized in all policies. All policies that conflict with health should be void. If the immune system is not strengthened, it will not be possible to reduce the pressure on the country's hospitals, they added.

The seminar recommended initiatives to increase taxes on unhealthy foods and reduce taxes on healthy foods, strengthen packaging and labelling, as well as control advertising of unhealthy foods to children. Besides, all the packets contain extra salt and sugar, it is recommended to use color or special symbols, so that common people can easily understand.