Still Many Consume Sweetened Condensed Milk Considered Proof of Government Failure to Protect Children's Health

Mother and Child Health activist, Irma Hidayana (doc. Special).

JAKARTA - Almost a decade since the Government declared condensed milk is not milk by regulating the promotion and labeling of the product, changes in people's behavior in the consumption of condensed milk have not shown progress.

The results of a recent national survey by the Bandung Islamic University (Unisba) showed that 67.6 percent of parents still give condensed milk as milk to children.

Mother and Child Health activist, Irma Hidayana, considered this a setback. The reason is, what he had been fighting for with a number of groups almost a decade ago had no progress.

"This is regression, yes, not progress, it means a setback. About 10 years ago, what does that mean, what is happening now, yes, with this survey shows that there is no change, even, yes, no change and improvement in the use of SKM," said Irma.

According to Irma, one of the reasons for the high consumption of condensed milk as milk is because there are no firm rules. The current regulation, namely the Regulation of the Indonesian Food and Drug Agency Number 6 of 2021 concerning the Supervision of Advertising for Processed Food, is not followed up with adequate education and socialization.

"The government has issued that if the SKM must be disclosed, it is not a milk product that cannot be included in the milk category. This means that the rules are just rules, there is no socialization at all, there is no education and support to the community," said Irma who had just been appointed as the Shadow Cabinet Minister of Health.

In fact, Irma considers that one of the keys to being able to overcome the error of consuming thick sweet is a firm regulation. Not only regulations that regulate advertising alone, but also various forms of marketing and product distribution that can affect consumer behavior.

After strong regulations, education can be carried out optimally. This is because Irma sees the price and ease of access as factors that also maintain the consumption of sweet condensed milk.

Cheap and easily available products make it more accessible which can encourage people to choose products that are considered more affordable.

"There must be strong regulations. If education alone will be useless," said Irma.

Furthermore, Irma explained that the next stage after the regulation was education which still had to be carried out by the Government. The reason is, until now education has only been carried out by the community.

In fact, in order for socialization and education to run well, it needs the role of the Government which already has instruments and health service networks down to the lowest level.

"People also have to learn, but they shouldn't be allowed to learn on their own, they must be accompanied so that the intervention is from the bottom and from the top," said Irma.

Previously, the Head of the Research Team from Fikom Unisba, Firmansyah, explained that the survey was conducted on 2,150 respondents consisting of parents with toddlers aged 1-3 years.

From the survey, the Fikom Unisba team found many interesting findings. One of them is that most respondents are at the undergraduate level.

This shows that the problem of thick sweet is not just lack of education, but also there are economic factors, family culture, habits, and even the influence of advertisements that shape public perceptions.

"This raises questions about how much people understand the nutritional content of sweet condensed milk. On the other hand, Indonesia is a country with complex child nutrition challenges, ranging from stunting, wasting, to increasing the risk of non-communicable diseases from an early age," said Firmansyah.