Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, November 5
The Centre today set the ball rolling to ban sale and advertising of junk food inside schools and within 50-m radius of campuses.
The provision to ban food high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) is part of the new Food Safety and Standards (Safe Food and healthy diets for School Children) Regulations, 2019, framed by the Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the apex food regulator. The draft regulations will become law once notified. These have been placed in the public domain for stakeholders’ comments for 30 days.
The regulations come close on the heels of a Health Ministry survey that revealed Indian children were at the increased risk of non-communicable diseases with one in every 10 surveyed children found to be pre-diabetic; one in 10 with high triglycerides showing poor heart health; five per cent reporting high blood pressure and seven per cent showing signs of developing chronic kidney disease.
The regulations say school authorities selling or catering meals by themselves must get registered as Food Business Operators (FBOs) as per existing provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. This law specifies the nutrition requirements FBOs need to meet.
“Any school authority entering into a contract or transaction with FBOs selling or catering school meals on the campus will ensure such FBOs are duly registered or licensed under the provisions of the Act. Schools will ensure no person offers or exposes for sale of pre-packaged food, referred to as food high in fat, salt and sugar under the current draft regulations, in school canteens, mess premises, hostel kitchens or within 50 m of the school campus,” say the draft regulations. These also directed schools to become “Eat Right Campuses and prepare diets based on the National Institute of Nutrition’s manual titled “Dietary guidelines for Indians.”
The regulations bar the FBOs manufacturing HFSS food from advertising or offering these in schools and within 50 m of the campuses.
NEW RULES SAY…
- School authorities selling or catering meals by themselves must get registered as Food Business Operators as per existing provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006
- The FBOs manufacturing food high in fat, salt and sugar are barred from advertising or offering these in schools and within 50 m of the campuses
Water conservation must, says CBSE
The CBSE has resolved to make schoolchildren water conservation ambassadors. At a conference of schools in Delhi, CBSE chief Anita Karwal says, “The resolution requires every child from Classes V to XII to save at least one litre of water every day at home and at school and conduct water surveys. The move is aimed at making water awareness study part of academic subjects and CBSE schools water-efficient in three years.”
from The Tribune https://ift.tt/2Cj1Ky4
via Today’s News Headlines
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