By Ashok Kanchan

Dietary Fibre

Dietary Fibre refers to plant cell wall components that are not digestible by human digestive enzymes. Dietary fiber requirement can be met by adopting a diet that incorporates plant origin foods including fruits, vegetables and grains.

Benefits of a high-fibre diet

• Normalizes bowel movements. 
• Helps maintain bowel health. 
• Lowers cholesterol levels. 
• Helps control blood sugar levels. 
• Aids in achieving healthy weight.

The 2020 Report of the Expert Group of National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), Hyderabad of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) recommended about 40 gram /2000 kcal has been considered as safe intake.

Per serving carbohydrate, protein and fibre measurement

NM -Not Mentioned

Key findings

• We found brand Ching’s with highest declared carbohydrate and the brand Bambino has it lowest.
• Consuming one serving of Ching’s tomato soup by man/woman implies 8 per cent of his/her daily carbohydraterequirement is met.
• We found brand Bambino with highest declared protein and it was found lowest in Ching’s and Knorr.
• Consuming one serving of Snac tac tomato soup by man means 2 per cent of his daily protein requirement is met.
• Declaration of dietary fibre on the label is not mandatory. We saw brands Bambino and Knorr declared it on their labels. However, we found dietary fibre was higher in Bambino than Knorr.

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WHO guidance on dietary salt

Adults should consume less than two grams of sodium, or five grams of salt per day. A person with elevated sodium levels could be at risk of raised blood pressure which increases the risk of heart disease and stroke.

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Traffic Light Labeling 

Foods which are high in fat, sugar and salt are linked with obesity and non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and high blood pressure.Food Standards Agency of United Kingdom (U.K.) developed Traffic Light Labeling guidelines to help consumers to:

• Correctly identify healthier food products.
• Make comparisons between products easily.
• Make these comparisons at a glance.

The above labeling system however is not followed in India.

The criteria for foods were set out as follows (per 100-gram food):

Results will be interpreted, which can be easily understood as follows:

Green:  Eat often (Desirable)

Amber: Eat occasionally (Neutral)

Red: Eat sparingly (Undesirable)

Traffic Light Rating 

NM – Not Mentioned

*Sodium multiplied by 2.5

Key findings

• Traffic light for fat is amber in all brands which means one shall consume all these brands occasionally.
• Traffic light for sugar is red of brands Ching’ and Knorr. It denotes one shall consume these brands sparingly. Traffic light for sugar is amber for brands Bambino and Snac tac.
• Declaration of sodium/ salt is not mandatory in nutrition information of labels so only brands Bambino, Ching’s and Knorr have declared this information. In brands that have declared sodium/salt, traffic light is red – means one shall consume them sparingly.
• Salt is on higher side in all brands. As per the WHO Guidance, consumption of one serving of Bambino tomato soup means one has consumed 36 per cent (more than 1/3) of its daily salt requirement.We found salt was lowest in Knorr brand.

Unit price 

Unit pricing or comparative pricingis a way to show the price of a commodity in relation to a standard unit of measure, such as the kilogram or litre or number. Unit price gives fair idea about cheaper and costlier brands.

Key finding

• As per the unit price per serving, the cheapest brand is Bambino and the costliest are Ching’s and Knorr.