Junk food high in fat, sugar and salt: panel

An expert group has suggested restricting the availability and consumption of junk food or food high in fat, sugar and salt in schools and in a 50 metre radius around them. It has also called for increasing the availability of wholesome food to schoolchildren across the country.

The committee has identified chips, fried foods, sugar-sweetened carbonated beverages, sugar-sweetened non-carbonated beverages, ready-to-eat noodles, pizzas, burgers, potato fries and confectionery items as the common foods containing fat, sugar and salt in high quantities.

It gave this suggestion in draft guidelines for making available quality and safe foods in schools. A copy of the guidelines was on Wednesday submitted to the Delhi High Court.

The Court has been hearing a petition by non-government organisation Uday Foundation in the matter. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India had set up the expert committee on a direction by the Court to advise the Central Advisory Committee to develop guidelines for making available quality and safe food in schools.

The guidelines further state that steps should be initiated to develop a nationwide programme for identification of more foods based on the criterion and inform the schools accordingly.

Another category of concern is the non-standardised deep fried foods such as samosa, chana-bhatura, etc that are available in school canteens and nearby areas. The guidelines state that the school managements must ensure regulation of such foods through canteen policies that promote consumption of healthy, wholesome and nutritious foods alone.

Canteen in schools should not be treated as commercial outlets; they carry a social responsibility towards inculcating healthy eating behaviour, the guidelines noted. The canteens can be used to motivate children to consume healthy and hygienic food.

The guidelines also stress the need to regulate `the exposure and power of advertisements and promotional activities’ that are targeted at children.

``It is recommended that the government may advise the Advertising Standards Council of India or any other relevant body to consider developing such a framework for (1) regulating advertisements for foods high in fat, sugar and salt (2) limiting reach of such advertisements in the electronic media where the school children are the key audience (3) restricting celebrity endorsements for such foods and (4) regulating promotional activities of such foods targeted at the children,’’ the guidelines pointed out.

It has also been stated that FSSAI should ensure that the labels on all food packets should carry information on the type and quantity of various nutrients and how much the serving size contributes to the total daily requirement.