Sausages and meat products are made in and are popular in Sri Lanka - they are seen daily on TV and are eaten that frequently. Parents may think that they provide good nutrition and children love the taste. The packaging provides a long list of ingredients (Chicken, Cereal binder, Milk Powder, Spices, Phosphates E450, 451, 452 etc) and cooking and storage instructions. However there is no nutritional information (e.g. how many grams of protein, fat etc per 100 grams of sausage) on packing which is vital information necessary to judge the nutrition value.

These products are exported to India too and they put the information on their label. 100 grams of Chicken Sausages contains 11.8 grams of protein, 19.6 grams of fat and 1.8 grams of carbohydrate and so on. What does the other 66 grams contain – water? spices? Certainly nothing of any decent nutritional value.

So why is the nutrition information given to the 1 billion people of India but kept secret from the 19 million in Sri Lanka? Perhaps the Sri Lankan Food Labelling regulations do not require it and the Indian does? Should not "socially responsible" companies provide such information voluntarily rather than doing it only when forced to by regulations?

Such information is vital to judge the nutritious value of food – for example 2 eggs will provide the protein and fat in 100 grams of Chicken Sausages, so 10 eggs will provide the fat and protein in a 500 gram pack. It is left to the reader to compare the prices.

Men (or women) do not live by bread (or nutritional information) alone; taste and other things are important too. However they should be provided with the correct information to decide what they should eat.