Indonesia’s new food labels are ‘long overdue’, but can they help fight rising obesity?

Indonesia’s new front-of-pack nutrition labelling scheme has been welcomed by health advocates as a long-overdue measure to tackle excessive sugar, salt and fat intake. But experts said the labels were only a first step and would do little on their own to slow Indonesia’s growing burden of obesity, diabetes, hypertension and other diet-related diseases. A decree issued by the health ministry on April 14 requires ready-to-eat food and drink products to carry nutrition labels and health messages on the front of their packaging, as well as on menus, brochures, flyers, food-delivery applications and other promotional materials. The initiative will initially apply to large-scale drink producers on a voluntary basis before expanding to food categories and becoming mandatory in two years. Indonesia has chosen a “nutri-level” system similar to Singapore’s Nutri-Grade model, with products graded A, B, C or D. Green A and B labels indicate products low in sugar, salt and fat, while a red D label signals products high in sugar and saturated fat. “Nutritional information has been available [on ready-to-eat food and drinks] for some time, but the public doesn’t fully understand it,” Siti Nadia Tarmizi, director of prevention and control of non-communicable diseases at the Ministry of Health, told reporters on April 14. Many food and drink products in Indonesia already have a Guideline Daily Amount nutrition facts label, while some carry a green-mark “Healthier Choice” label from the Food and Drug Administration. “Surveys show that Indonesians understand the alphabetical scale. Furthermore, people are more familiar with green, yellow and red, as they are associated with traffic lights,” Siti said. The public, health practitioners and advocates have welcomed the new labelling system, though not without reservations. “This is great, mimicking the system used in Europe, so for those who watch their diet, they can see that an A-B nutrition grade is good. A C-D grade does lack some nutrients, but it’s still perfectly safe to consume. People with obesity and malnutrition can make a wiser choice,” a user said on social media on April 16. Another user said supervision should be tight so that the new system “is not being messed with”. Manufacturers including the pharmaceutical, healthcare and nutrition company Kalbe Farma responded positively. “We were very pleased when the government launched this programme, because for us, education is better than curative [measures],” Mulia Lie, director of Kalbe Farma, told reporters on April 17, as cited by Antara. The company will apply the nutri-level labels on all its products after using up its existing stock. The Association of Indonesian Food and Beverage Producers did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but its chairman, Adhi Lukman, said in February that producers would heed the new guidance and many manufacturers “have reformulated their products” to reduce sugar, salt and fat content. Not a ‘silver bullet’ Epidemiologist and public health expert Dicky Budiman said front-of-pack labelling was “urgently” needed and a “long-overdue” measure to help reduce sugar intake among Indonesians. “Epidemiologically, Indonesia is already facing a double burden [of malnutrition], as we have a rapid nutritional transition towards ultra-processed foods. Our adult obesity prevalence is increasing significantly,” Dicky told This Week in Asia. A 2018 survey by the health ministry estimated there would be 20.4 million people with diabetes in Indonesia by 2024. Hypertension was recorded in 63.3 million adults, according to the ministry’s 2023 Indonesian Health Survey. In 2025, the country spent 50.2 trillion rupiah (US$2.9 billion) on treating these non-communicable diseases, through universal healthcare, up from 30.5 trillion rupiah in 2024. “Indonesia is relatively late in implementing the nutri-level system. Global evidence gathered by the World Health Organization shows that this type of labelling is considered a best-buy intervention for preventing non-communicable diseases. However, it’s not a silver bullet. It shouldn’t stand alone,” Dicky said. In Singapore, the median sugar level of pre-packaged beverages decreased from 7.1 per cent in 2017 to 4.6 per cent in 2023, since the system was introduced in 2022, according to the city state’s Ministry of Health in November. Aliyah Almas Saadah, researcher and advocacy officer for food policy at the Centre for Indonesia’s Strategic Development Initiatives, said the nutri-level label was “a step forward” but warning labels such as “high in sugar” or “high in fat” were more effective. “Without knowledge about the safe threshold for sugar, salt and fat consumption, it actually won’t have much of an impact on changing public consumption,” she said. Aliyah also noted that the current thresholds were more lenient than global best practices. For instance, a drink earning a “green B” in Indonesia – which means it contains up to five grams of sugar per 100 millilitres – might be flagged as “high sugar” under the stricter regulations of countries like Chile. Both Dicky and Aliyah urged the government to apply a dedicated excise duty on sugar-sweetened beverages, which Dicky said could reduce consumption by “up to 30 per cent”. The government could also implement marketing curbs for unhealthy food and drinks, such as “restrictions on advertising on social media and television, for example from 6am to 10pm when children generally consume media”, Aliyah said. Real change, however, required transforming the entire food system, Dicky said. He suggested measures such as government subsidies to make fresh produce more affordable than ultra-processed food, and ensuring that hospitals and schools banned unhealthy products in their canteens. “It’s ironic that healthy food is more expensive than unhealthy ones, which is the root of the problem here,” he said.

Indonesia’s new food labels are ‘long overdue’, but can they help fight rising obesity?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Indonesians welcome the new labelling system to reduce sugar, salt and fat intake, but experts warn it is not a ‘silver bullet’

Indonesians welcome the new labelling system to reduce sugar, salt and fat intake, but experts warn it is not a ‘silver bullet’