Beware of food companies' strategies: The Union expert on NCDs warns

A global expert of non-communicable diseases, NCDs, has found similarities between tobacco and food companies’ strategies, and urged countries to strictly regulate the marketing of their “unhealthy” products.

Nurul Islam Hasibfrom Mexico Citybdnews24.com
Published : 17 Oct 2017, 03:17 AM
Updated : 17 Oct 2017, 03:21 AM

Dr Ehsan Latif, Senior Advisor NCDs of The Union, world’s leading scientific organisation that offers health solutions to the poor, talking to bdnews24.com, also asked governments to be careful about the motive of “voluntary regulations” by the food companies themselves.

“A piecemeal approach to NCDs will not work,” he said, on the sidelines of the just concluded annual gathering of lung health at Guadalajara in Mexico, recommending “a wider policy net of binding laws and regulations” to address those non-infectious diseases.

NCDs – mainly cancer, cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes – account for 68 percent of global mortality, or two out of every three deaths.

The chief executive officer of the NCD Alliance, Katie Dain, during the conference told bdnews24.com that those diseases are spreading aggressively in South Asia particularly Bangladesh with the most worrying fact is that it is affecting the people of the region younger than the rest of the world.

This results in financial hardship and threatening poverty reduction programmes including national development.

A patient receives chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer at the Antoine-Lacassagne Cancer Center in Nice, Jul 26, 2012. Reuters

The fast food market is mostly unregulated in Bangladesh with no government policy to control pricing and advertisements giving the way of new global chains in the market.

Two burger chains of the US – Burger King and Johnny Rockets – have opened its outlets in Dhaka this year. The Coca-cola also opened its own factory in Bangladesh.

A new study published last week in British medical journal The Lancet indicates the rise in obesity rates in low and middle income countries, especially in Asia, has “recently accelerated” while the rise has been “slowed and plateaued” in high income countries.

Food marketing and policies have been blamed for these trends.

“I visited a shopping mall with my wife and 17 year old daughter, a couple of weeks back. It was after work hours and we thought of grabbing a quick bite before we went home,” Dr Latif, who works from The Union’s EU office based in the UK, recounted.

“The food court offered a variety of food but the ones which caught our eyes were the fast food outlets with teenagers and young adults, even mothers with infants in prams flocking these.

“Once you are in the food court, it is impossible to miss these outlets with their well thought out advertising, catchy phrases and a choice of logos and colours which probably have gone through immaculate research before being finalised.

“Looking at the advertising of these fast food outlets gave me a strong déjà vu of the times when advertising for cigarettes was rampant, visible to the young, adults, and elderly, basically everyone and followed the same pattern of catching your eye,” he said.

He said the commercial industry uses information technology to expand its consumer base and enhance profits and to exploit any loophole in the laws or policies in place.

“We may think that tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorships are things of the past but having observed tobacco industry’s behaviour for the last 20 years, I feel disconcerted with what is happening now.”

“The big billboards or mass media advertising campaigns may have disappeared but other channels continue to be used.

“And as if this is not challenging enough, the industries learn from each other’s experiences not only on what marketing strategies work but also how to avoid regulations curbing effective legislation efforts.

“It’s not surprising that their marketing techniques resemble each other as if they are singing from the same hymn sheet,” he said.

“For example members of their boards share portfolios and sit on board of directors of the other industries associated with the NCD risk factors.”

“The resemblance therefore is not only the outward images we see but also the strategies they use to block or at-least delay effective public health policy development and adoption.”

“While the industries learn from each other and follow the same techniques, public health professionals need to assess if we are doing the same and lessons learnt from observing tobacco industry’s behaviour are being utilised to a maximum,” he said.

Beware of voluntary policies

Dr Latif said behind the morbidity and mortality caused by NCDs are the four modifiable risk factors - tobacco, alcohol, fatty foods and salt backed by their respective industries.

“These industries like the tobacco industry in the 1980s want to avoid regulations on their advertising and promotion and so they adopted voluntary set of codes or have worked with governments to put in place policies which are partial in nature and with limited focus.

“These voluntary codes or policies are mainly aimed at preventing only the children’s exposure to advertising of their products.

“One thing tobacco control has taught us is that ‘Voluntary Codes’ or partial restrictions do not work.”

For example, he said, even after the passage and coming into force of World Health Organization – Frame work Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO-FCTC) young adults and children are still exposed to tobacco advertising.

According to WHO Global Tobacco Control Report (GTCR) 2014 only 12 percent of the world population is protected by comprehensive TAPS -- Tobacco Advertising, Promotion and Sponsorships - policies.

“Another fact which compounds the situation is the fact that low and middle income countries are faced with a growing burden of NCDs,” he said.

“With growing economies and better purchasing powers populations are now – led by the advertising campaigns of the industries – switching from healthy foods to so called fast foods.”

“Monitoring of ‘voluntary codes’ or ‘partial restrictions’, in these under resourced countries is and will remain a challenge,” he said, asking the public health community not to accept voluntary codes adopted by these industries “any way”.

“Regulating the advertising and promotion of these products should form a part of wide ranging policies at national level,” he said.

“These policies are needed to address the unregulated marketing of unhealthy products along with strategies to fulfil the commitments countries have made in the shape of SDGs (Goal 3 - health)”.

WHO’s Global Action Plan for prevention and control of NCDs 2013-2020 also outlines a set of policy options to address these concerns.

“These policy recommendations need to be translated into national policies and strategies starting with strengthening of health infra-structure to tackle NCDs and building the capacity of the relevant stakeholders to lead and coordinate NCD efforts.

“This should be supported with a coordinated effort involving UN bodies and International non-governmental organisations,” Dr Latif said.

“A comprehensive national policy on NCDs prevention should act as a platform to address risk factors for major NCDs, and to provide coherence with other health, fiscal, environmental and social policies.”