True Blue Dot

Did you Know
In 2009, the mean age of Diabetes diagnosis among Indian was 43.6 years.
Did you Know
50% had poor control as measured by HbA1c, and 54% had late severe complications.
Did you Know
Diet and exercise are the important components in management of diabetes. However, the adherence rates observed for diet for type 1 and type 2 diabetic patients were 39 and 37%, respectively, and for exercise they were 37 and 35%, respectively.
Did you Know
Understanding nutrition label is difficult for patients; this is also true for patients with higher literacy level. Project Blue Dot is an initiative to enable diabetes patients and caregivers to make informed decisions about diet.

Project Blue Dot

Project Blue Dot is an initiative to empower people with diabetes to make healthier food choices through easy identification of diabetes friendly food. The project was launched in India by the United Diabetes Forum (UDF)  in partnership with McCann Health. The UDF is an association of over 100 diabetologists as its members, predominantly based in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane, rest of Maharashtra and other states. McCann Health is part of McCann Worldgroup and the Interpublic Group (IPG)), a global communication network.

Our Aim

The project was aimed to bring about a policy change in food labelling thereby making identification of diabetes friendly food easy. The essential concept and idea is to denote diabetes friendly food with a distinct BLUE DOT (equivalent to the brown and green dots representing non-vegetarian and vegetarian food respectively) thus empowering patients and enhancing lives by helping them  take right decisions. The project was rolled out in two phases, an initial scientific phase, when Blue Dot was defined and validated and a second phase involving a consumer campaign.

Scientific definition

Which foods can be labelled with a Blue Dot and how foods can be defined as diabetes friendly, was decided through scientific debate and validation. A national advisory board was constituted. This advisory board included eminent diabetologists, endocrinologists, nutritionists, psychologists and statisticians. Three advisory board meetings were conducted to arrive at a consensus for definition of diabetes friendly food.