Remember the snacks we grew up loving; cheese balls, noodles, wafers, puffs, toffees, biscuits? Just thinking about them brings back memories of school breaks, pocket-money treats, and tiffin boxes. But try those same snacks today and… something feels off. The taste just isn’t what it used to be.
Sure, maybe our taste buds have changed as we’ve grown up. But honestly, it feels like the quality of the food itself has gone downhill.
One frustrating thing about living in Nepal is that prices keep going up, yet the quality keeps going down. We often pay much higher prices compared to our neighbouring countries, and still end up with products that feel cheap and substandard. It’s a strange and unfair reality we’ve gotten used to.
Food security should be a big deal. After all, it affects every single one of us. But in Nepal, it often feels like authorities don’t take it seriously enough. Because of weak monitoring and slow action, millions of us eat foods that may not even be safe. And unless something major happens, the issue barely gets attention.
A disappointing trend here is that when a product becomes popular, instead of getting better, it often gets worse. It’s like the moment a brand becomes a household name, they start cutting corners. Instead of rewarding loyal customers with better quality, they quietly reduce it, probably to save costs.
What hurts more is when big, well-known food brands or restaurants, ones we’ve trusted for years, get caught using low-quality or even harmful ingredients. These are the names we grew up with, the snacks we fed our kids, the brands we recommended to others. Seeing them cheat on quality feels like betrayal.
A recent example is the case of Khajurico Puff. This is a snack almost everyone in the city knows. When authorities tested it, they found that the amount of industrial trans fat, one of the worst things you can put in your body was above the legal limit. The trans fat content was found to be over 2%, so the product was officially labelled “low-standard food” and asked the manufacturer to withdraw the product from the market.
For a brand that’s been around for decades and is loved across generations, this was really disappointing. None of us expected a name like Khajurico to cut corners like that.
Trans fat isn’t just unhealthy, it’s actually dangerous. It’s linked to heart disease, which is the leading cause of death worldwide. Studies show that too much trans fat can:
- Increase overall death risk by 34%
- Increase risk of dying from heart disease by 28%
- Increase heart disease risk by 21%
And the worst part? Trans fat has zero health benefits. It’s only used to make food cheaper to produce and longer-lasting. Basically, it harms consumers so manufacturers can save a little money.
The issue isn’t just about one snack. It’s about the whole system; weak regulation, lack of monitoring, brands trying to save money at the expense of our health.
As consumers, we need to raise our voices, ask questions, and demand better quality. We shouldn’t have to choose between nostalgia and safety. We shouldn’t have to pay more for food that’s slowly harming us.
Nepal deserves better. We all do.