India Food Stats

Many countries maintain official "Ingredient Dictionaries" or "Common Name Lists" to ensure that when a manufacturer says "Sugar" or "Milk," it means the same thing on every label. While National Nutrition Databases (like the USDA's FoodData Central) focus on what’s inside the food (vitamins/minerals), Regulatory Identity Lists (often part of a country's food law) define what the ingredient must be called. Here are the most prominent official systems used to make ingredient identity clear: 1. Canada: The "Common Names" List Canada is perhaps the most explicit. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) maintains a document called " Common Names for Ingredients and Components ." It acts as a mandatory "thesaurus" for food labels. The Goal: To prevent vague or deceptive labeling. Example: If a manufacturer uses a mix of butter, cream, and skim milk, they are legally allowed (and sometimes required) to group the...

Walk into any MedPlus pharmacy and you’ll likely spot Eatrite Ragi Squares (Chocolate flavour) proudly displayed right at the front — right next to the protein bars and multivitamins. The branding screams “wholesome goodness”: 54% ragi flour (a super millet loaded with calcium, fibre and all those desi-health-hero credentials). Perfect for the calorie-conscious Indian who wants to feel virtuous while snacking, right? Not so fast. Take a closer look at the front packaging and you’ll see cute little chocolate slabs staring back at you, practically winking at anyone with even a mild weakness for cocoa. Yet when you check the actual ingredients, the product contains more sugar than cocoa powder. Images: OpenFoodFacts Here’s the reality check: Ragi flour: 54% → genuinely impressive Refined sugar: 10% → that’s a solid 1 in 10 parts of the product Chocolate cream filling: a whopping 25% (which itself brings even more sugar, milk solids and vegetable fat) Cocoa powder: just 3% So yes — there’s...

After hearing glowing recommendations for Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss on the Open Food Facts forum, I picked up the book with a simple question in mind: How can someone write 400 pages about three basic ingredients — salt, sugar and fat? Three months later, after slowly working my way through the book, the answer became clear. These three ingredients are not just kitchen staples. In the hands of the trillion-dollar processed food industry, they have been carefully engineered to make foods convenient, irresistible, and hard to stop eating. Reading the book was both validating and chilling. Validating, because many of us already suspect something strange about ultra-processed foods. Chilling, because Moss reveals just how deliberately these products are designed. Although the book focuses on American companies, the lessons apply globally. Multinational food giants routinely transfer successful strategies from one country to another. Take the example of ...

Our body requires protein for the replenishment of muscle tissue, skin, bone matter, hair and nails. Proteins are made up of 20 different amino acids, some of which are synthesized within the body (non-essential) while some are not synthesized in the body (essential amino acids). Our body can make 11 on its own but the other 9 essential amino acids have to come from food because your body lacks the genetic code to synthesize them from scratch. You must eat them to survive. The most famous and easiest way to remember all nine is the phrase: " PVT TIM HALL " (Read as: Private Tim Hall) Letter Amino Acid Memory Hook/Function P Phenylalanine Think "Phone" — used for brain signaling (dopamine). V Valine A "Branch-Chain" (BCAA) for muscle growth. T Threonine Think "Thread" — helps make collagen/connective tissue. T Tryptophan The "Turkey" chemical — makes serotonin and melatonin. I Isoleucine Another BCAA — critical for immune function...

Pringles are engineered potato crisps : perfectly uniform and stackable. Image: Open Food Facts ; click on link for ingredient analysis While working at Proctor & Gamble, chemist Fred Baur (1918–2008) reinvented potato chips by creating uniform "crisps" (only 42% potato per ingredients analysis) using dehydrated potato dough pressed into hyperbolic paraboloid shapes for even crunch and stackability, solving 1950s chip inconsistencies. Baur spent two years developing these saddle-shaped chips but could not make it palatable. Although Baur designed the shape of the Pringles chip, it is P&G researcher, Alexander Liepa's name that is on the patent as he worked on it further and improved its taste. Gene Wolfe, a mechanical engineer and author known for science fiction and fantasy novels, helped develop the machine that cooked them. Baur's pride in his Procter & Gamble innovation led to his 2008 partial burial in a Pringles can. The brand was sold in 2012 to ...