“I think this working committee is not enough. I propose a cross-commission special committee,” he said in Jakarta on Monday.
He made the statement at a meeting of Commission IX's Working Committee for the Supervision of Processed Food and Ready-to-Eat Food Products Containing Sugar, Salt, and Fat.
After the committee is formed, it can continuously monitor the government's efforts to handle the excessive consumption of sugar, salt, and fat, he said.
Currently, it is essential to form such a committee given the increasing trend of diseases caused by excessive sugar, salt, and fat intake, such as diabetes mellitus and cancer, from year to year, Siska explained.
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The legislator also suggested that the government carry out a national campaign to step up vigilance against excessive consumption of sugar, salt, and fat.
Earlier, acting director general of disease prevention and control at the Ministry of Health, Yudhi Pramono, said that the GlobalData Q2 2021 Consumer Survey in June 2021 named Indonesia as the country with the highest consumption of sweetened packaged drinks in the Asia-Pacific.
Furthermore, he informed that the Individual Food Consumption Survey of the Health Research and Development Agency in 2014 showed that the average salt consumption among Indonesians was 2,764 milligrams per person per day.
In addition, the Individual Food Consumption Survey in 2015 showed that 27 percent of the Indonesian population exceeded the recommended daily fat consumption limit of 67 grams.
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Translator: Tri Meilani, Raka Adji
Editor: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
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