Pakistan’s growing nutrition crisis calls for more than simply increasing food availability, with experts stressing the need for stronger food systems that can deliver safe, nutritious and affordable products to consumers. At a recent two-day high-level dialogue in Islamabad, Tetra Pak called for comprehensive reforms across food safety, taxation, processing, storage and distribution to address malnutrition and unlock the wider economic potential of Pakistan’s food and dairy sectors.
Noor Aftab, Director, Corporate Affairs for Pakistan, Middle East, North and West Africa at Tetra Pak, highlighted the role of policy and private-sector investment in building a more resilient and competitive food value chain.
The high-level event gathered global development leaders, policymakers, and private sector stakeholders to address Pakistan’s escalating child stunting and malnutrition crisis.
Noor Aftab strongly urged for comprehensive reforms in food-safety laws and taxation. Speaking as a panelist alongside food policy experts and corporate sustainability leaders, Noor Aftab focused on structural changes needed to secure nutrition.
He emphasised the urgent need to reshape food-safety legislation to support the delivery of safe, scalable, and processed nutritional products. He pointed out that structural fiscal reforms and taxation relief are critical to keeping vital, nutrient-dense foods affordable for the general populace, especially amidst high inflation and dwindling purchasing power.
“Pakistan’s nutrition challenge goes beyond food availability. It is about ensuring nutritious products remain safe and high-quality while reaching consumers efficiently and affordably. Strengthening food processing, packaging, storage and distribution can help attract more investment across the food value chain, supported by the right policies,” said Noor Aftab, Director, Corporate Affairs for Pakistan, Middle East, North and West Africa at Tetra Pak during a recent 2-day dialogue held in Islamabad.
“A food or a product may be full of nutrition but may not be safe to consume,” he said, describing food safety as the “critical middle” of the food system, where processing, packaging, logistics, storage and transportation play an important role in ensuring that food reaches consumers safely.
The dairy sector, he said, presents one of the clearest opportunities to translate these principles into broader economic and nutritional gains. Pakistan is among the world’s largest milk producers, giving the sector considerable potential to support farmer incomes, food security, industrial development and future exports.
Noor also highlighted productivity improvement at the farm level as an important part of developing a stronger and more competitive dairy industry. “Average milk yields in Pakistan remain considerably below those achieved in leading dairy markets, creating an opportunity to improve productivity while strengthening the economics of dairy farming. Higher productivity, combined with greater processing capacity and stronger food safety systems, could significantly expand the economic potential of Pakistan’s dairy industry,” Noor said.
School feeding programmes provide another example of how nutrition interventions can generate wider benefits when supported by strong food systems and sustained partnerships. Tetra Pak has been involved in school milk programmes globally since 1962, with millions of children receiving milk and fortified beverages in Tetra Pak packages across countries.
The broader dialogue highlighted that 4 out of every 10 children under five in Pakistan are stunted, which was described as a “national emergency”. The panel collectively concluded that solving malnutrition requires fixing supply chain incentives, improving workforce capabilities, and standardizing food safety across the country.
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