By The Straits Times | Created at 2026-06-14 02:21:32 | Updated at 2026-06-14 04:40:45
2 hours ago
JAKARTA - The Indonesian Health Ministry’s policy of graded labelling for sugar, salt and fat content in beverage products has been met with doubt by consumers and small business owners, who question its implementation and whether it would effectively influence dietary habits.
The policy, stipulated in a ministerial regulation issued in April, pushes the nutrition label, called Nutri-Level, to be applied on menus and packaging of freshly prepared beverages sold in drink outlets and restaurants.
It classified drinks from A to D level accompanied by colour codes based on the percentage of sugar, salt and fat content per 100 milliliters.
Rizky, 31, who likes cafe hopping, said he supports the policy and hopes the label will encourage people to pay closer attention to what they consume and raise awareness about the health consequences of their daily dietary choices.
However, Rizky also questioned whether the graded labeling system could be implemented consistently and accurately, noting that reliable nutritional assessments require proper laboratory testing.
“I am concerned about the possibility that some brands could display favorable Nutri-Level ratings on their products without proper testing, because accurate measurements require additional costs and effort,” he said on June 10.
Syahrul, a 57-year-old coffee shop owner in Depok, West Java, argued the policy could be difficult to be implemented by small businesses.
He noted that beverage outlets would need laboratory testing to determine nutritional values before displaying them on menus and packaging, a process that could increase operational costs without necessarily changing consumers’ dietary behavior.
Despite his reservations about the policy, Syahrul said his business has long informed customers about ingredients and offered different sugar-level options for his products, a move he believes is more practical to encourage healthier consumption rather than putting Nutri-Level labels.
“I always offer customers a choice of sugar levels from regular to reduced sugar,” he said. “Even without nutrition grading labels, my customers are already aware of what they are consuming. Nutri-Level labels may be more difficult to implement than expected.”
Under the policy, the percentage of sugar, salt and fat in the freshly prepared drink products are determined through laboratory testing supervised by regional health agencies.
The Nutri-Level is currently not mandated, pending another regulation formalising the nutrition label. Businesses are given a two-year transition period to adapt.
The Health Ministry’s noncommunicable diseases prevention and control director Siti Nadia Tarmizi said the labelling system was intended as one of several measures to encourage healthier lifestyles, rather than a single solution aimed at changing people’s dietary habits.
The long-term goal is to reduce the number of people with noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, kidney failure and stroke. Such diseases commonly occur among older adults but are now increasingly affecting younger people.
The Health Ministry saw an increase of more than six times for kidney failure cases from 2019 to 2025, with treatment costs rising from around 2 trillion rupiah (S$144 million) to 13 trillion rupiah. Similar increases were also recorded for stroke and diabetes.
“Nutri-Level is primarily an ‘educational’ tool,” Siti said. “We encourage businesses to display the labels, but there is currently no specific target for the number of food and beverage businesses expected to adopt the system.”
So far, only two beverage brands have implemented the Nutri-Level initiative, Siti said, while several others are still awaiting laboratory test results.
Experts previously urged the government to impose other measures to help raise awareness of healthy diets, such as restricting the advertising of ultra-processed foods and introducing follow-up measures, including a long-awaited tax on sweetened beverages. THE JAKARTA POST/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
