Knowing what we eat is a fundamental consumer right. Yet in Bangladesh, the nutritional details provided on the back of packaged food is often so complex, unclear, or difficult to interpret, that consumers struggle to understand it at a glance and make informed purchasing decisions. This raises an important question: does the information provided actually help consumers make healthier choices, or has it become little more than a formal exercise in disclosure?
Having information available is not the same as being able to comprehend it and use it to make a choice. This distinction is particularly important when it comes to food. When buying packaged food, consumers usually make split-second decisions. In those brief seconds, they must assess whether the product contains excessive amounts of sugar, salt, or unhealthy fats, and, if so, what those levels mean for their health.
But how comprehensible is the dense nutritional information printed in small type on the back of a package? Can consumers realistically compare the nutritional profiles of multiple products within such a short period and make a genuinely health-conscious choice? The answer is possibly not. So, what could be the solution? One straightforward approach is the introduction of Front-of-Package Labelling (FOPL).
Bangladesh’s food environment is witnessing a rapid expansion of ultra-processed packaged foods, alongside a growing burden of diet-related noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). A nationwide study conducted in 2025 found that nearly 97 percent of people consume packaged foods at least once a week. Of the 105 processed and ultra-processed food products analyzed across 14 food categories defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), 63 percent were found to contain high levels of salt (sodium).
The public health implications are stark. WHO estimates that NCDs account for approximately 570,263 deaths in Bangladesh each year, nearly 71 percent of all deaths. An estimated 13.9 million people are living with diabetes, while about one in four adults (23.5 percent) has hypertension. Unhealthy diets are an important driver of this disease burden.
Against this backdrop, providing nutritional information on food packaging is not enough. For information to serve consumers, it must be presented in a way that is readily understood and useful at the point of purchase.
FOPL offers a practical and effective approach. By placing prominent warning symbols on the front of packages, it allows consumers to quickly identify products high in sugar, salt, or saturated fat without having to navigate complex nutritional information on the back. Its simplicity and visibility can help consumers make informed choices and, ultimately, support healthier dietary decisions.
FOPL has already been adopted in 44 countries worldwide, with mandatory warning-label systems in 10 countries, including Chile, Mexico, and Uruguay. Evidence from these countries suggests that such policies can influence the consumer behaviour and promote the reformulation of the products. Following the introduction of FOPL in Chile, the proportion of products requiring “high in” warning labels declined, while purchasing patterns for products high in sugar, sodium, and unhealthy fats also changed significantly.
In Uruguay, most consumers reported noticing the warning labels, and a substantial proportion said the labels had influenced their purchasing decisions. These experiences demonstrate that simple, warning-based FOPL is increasingly emerging as an evidence-based public health policy, one that can help encourage healthier food environments.
Article 18(1) of the Constitution of Bangladesh places the improvement of nutrition and public health among the State’s fundamental responsibilities. The Safe Food Act, 2013, similarly emphasizes the protection of human life and health and the prevention of misleading information in food labelling. The Right to Information Act further recognizes the free flow of information and the public’s right to access it.
These legal and constitutional commitments establish a clear public interest to protect consumers’ health and right to know in ensuring that consumers receive food information that is not merely available, but accurate and understandable. Food products containing excessive amounts of sugar, salt, or saturated fat should be subject to mandatory FOPL, ensuring that these critical health risks are prominently and consistently disclosed to consumers.
Bangladesh has made significant progress towards introducing front-of-package labelling (FOPL). The Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA) has already drafted the “Safe Food (Packaged Food Labelling) Regulations, 2026,” which proposes mandatory black octagonal warning labels on the front of packages for ultra-processed foods containing excessive amounts of sugar, salt, and saturated fat.
Following public consultation, the draft has been forwarded to the Ministry of Food for completion of the subsequent regulatory process. Given the country’s growing burden of diet-related noncommunicable diseases, the draft regulations should now be finalized and adopted without undue delay.
International experience shows that the introduction of FOPL can face concerted efforts by food industry interests to weaken, delay, or otherwise dilute the policy. Bangladesh is no exception. Industry stakeholders have invoked arguments related to international trade rules, technical standards, and potential economic impacts to press for a slower and less stringent regulatory approach.
Among their demands are replacing mandatory FOPL with a voluntary system, allowing lengthy implementation periods, and exempting small packages from the requirements. Such demands warrant careful scrutiny against the overarching objective of the policy: protecting public health and ensuring consumers have meaningful access to information about the nutritional risks of the foods they consume.
A voluntary or substantially weakened system would risk undermining the consistency, visibility, and public health impact of FOPL. The government’s firm commitment to implementing a globally recognized, evidence-based, mandatory, and public health-oriented FOPL system is highly commendable.
To curb the silent epidemic of NCDs , Bangladesh must now move swiftly to finalize the draft FOPL regulations and establish a single, robust, and clearly defined mandatory front-of-package warning labelling system.
Shabnam Mostofa serves as Program Officer and Mashiat Abedin as Coordinator at PROGGA (Knowledge for Progress).
