When it began, it was in the form of inspections in school and college canteens, small discussions with principals to do away with aerated drinks, packaged chips, specially vada pavs that seemed a favourite in every canteen. But eventually, it was a humungous task with the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reaching out to a lakh schools and colleges across Maharashtra to change canteen menus and inculcate healthier options. The move has been met with a small measure of success — across Mumbai, 29 schools and colleges, and across the state, some 250 schools have modified their canteen menus.
It started with a circular in May 2019 from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) banning junk food and food high in fat, salt, sugar content in school canteens. “We didn’t expect an overnight change. Our food inspectors would visit canteens, advise the principal to remove cold drinks, junk food. It was encouraging to see at least few respond, although we would have liked more schools to come forward,” says Ananya Rege, food safety officer in state’s FDA.
In the last seven months, at least 1,000 such schools and colleges have been visited since. In Vile Parle, a middle-class locality in Mumbai’s suburbs, Parle Tilak English High School’s canteen earlier sold vada pavs — the favourite quick bite for Maharashtrians— for Rs 10.
The need to do away with junk stems from rising obesity cases amongst children in schools.
Read more of this in a report by Tabassum Barnagarwala published in The Indian Express... (Link given below). Other states can easily replicate this good move.
