NEW DELHI, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- A new study has found that most of the packaged food items, mostly snacks and fast-foods, in India breach safe limits of salt and fat content.
The study conducted by the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) tested "salt, fat, trans-fat and carbohydrates in as many as 33 popular "junk foods," including 14 samples of chips, salted snacks, instant noodles and instant soup, and 19 samples of burgers, fries, fried chicken, pizzas, sandwiches and wraps.
The samples were collected from grocery stores and fast-food outlets in Delhi.
CSE Director General Sunita Narain said that all of the packaged foods of the various brands that were tested by her organization would be "in the red."
The environment organization relied on the concept of the "Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA)," a daily ceiling on the amount of salt, fat, carbohydrates and transfat a person should intake on a daily average.
According to the RDA, which is based on scientific consensus and agreed upon by expert bodies such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the National Institute of Nutrition in India, on an average no more than 5 grams of salt, 60 grams of fat, 300 grams carbohydrate and 2.2 grams of transfat should be consumed by an adult every day.
