The country’s apex food regulator, FSSAI, has put up draft guidelines on its website intended to monitor the consumption of junk food by school children.
Under the draft guidelines, which were first submitted to the court last year, food high in fat, salt or sugar will not be sold within 50 metres of a school’s premises. This includes an array of food & beverages commonly consumed by school children including chips, ready-to-eat noodles, pizzas, burgers, sugar-sweetened carbonated and non-carbonated drinks, potato fries (commonly called French fries) and confectionery items.
The draft guidelines have also suggested creation of a canteen policy and school health education programmes to make students and parents aware about the ill-effects of unhealthy food habits. The guidelines if notified could bring about a paradigm shift in how food is consumed in schools in India. The move comes after the Delhi High Court had given the Food Safety & Standards Authority of India three months in a hearing to do so. This is a welcome move and has been hailed by many individuals and institutions.
The judgement was in response to a public interest suit moved in 2010 by a NGO which had raised the issue of easy availability of junk food and carbonated drinks to children and had sought a ban on these food items in schools.
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