The Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has issued draft guidelines for providing wholesome and nutritious food to school children. The move is expected to help control consumption of junk food by kids.
The guidelines also lay emphasis on maintenance of sanitation and hygiene in preparation of food for schoolkids that includes storage and handling of food.
Further, the guidelines say that benefits of balanced, fresh and traditional food cannot be replaced while schools should not promote foods high in fat, salt and sugar, as children are not the best judge of their food choices.
Foods high in fat, salt and sugar such as sugar-sweetened beverages, chips, ready-to-eat noodles, pizzas, burgers, fried foods and confectionery items are to be restricted in schools and nearby. Also advertisement and promotion of such foods targeted at children will be regulated.
The guidelines stress on schools to have a canteen policy for ensuring availability of healthy foods.
The apex food regulatory body released the draft recently, which is available on its website. It would become regulations after receipt of final comments from the stakeholders.
Reacting to the development, Sunita Narain, director-general, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), in a statement, said, “We welcome the order issued by the food authority. It is important that junk food is regulated in schools. However, we are not sure why it is taking so much time to be implemented.”
It is pertinent to mention here that in March 2015, the Delhi High Court had directed FSSAI to give guidelines in the form of regulations or directions within a period of three months to enforce their implementation across the country.
FSSAI was granted an extension of three months by the court in July. “The court had emphasised on time-bound enforcement across the country and had put immense faith in FSSAI,” added Narain.
These guidelines, developed by an FSSAI-constituted expert committee, provide a scientific background on how consumption of junk foods high in fat, salt and sugar is linked with growing incidence of conditions such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension among children. The key principles on which the guidelines were based include ‘benefits of balanced, fresh and traditional food cannot be replaced, ‘schools are not the right places for promoting foods high in fat, salt and sugar’ and ‘children are not the best judge of their food choices,’according to Narain.
Guidelines
• Most common junk foods that are high in fat, salt and sugar such as chips, fried foods, sugar-sweetened carbonated beverages, sugar-sweetened non-carbonated beverages, ready-to-eat noodles, pizzas, burgers, potato fries and confectionery items should be restricted in schools and 50 m nearby.
• Advertisement and promotion of such foods targeted at children is to be regulated through a framework that includes all types of media, celebrity endorsements and promotional activities. The guidelines note that the issue has been referred to ministry of information and broadcasting.
• A canteen policy should be implemented based on colour-coding. Green category foods - the healthy food options - should constitute about 80 per cent of available foods. Red category of select most common junk foods that are high in fat, salt and sugar should not be sold or served in schools. Suggested, healthy menu options should include fruit salad, fruits, paneer / vegetable cutlets, khandvi, poha, uthapam, upma, idlis and kathi rolls, low-fat milk shakes with seasonal fruits and no added sugar, fresh fruit juice and smoothies with fruits, fresh lime soda, badam milk, lassi, etc.
• FSSAI should fix limits of unhealthy ingredients such as trans fats to 5 per cent at the earliest. The guidelines note that FSSAI has already issued a notification in this regard.
• Schools should promote nutrition education and awareness for children. A well-structured curriculum on balanced diet and its health impacts should be introduced.
• Labelling regulations must be strengthened by FSSAI to enable complete and transparent information on the amount of fat, salt and sugar with reference to recommended daily allowed limits. The guidelines note that FSSAI is looking into this.
