New food regulations to ban sale of junk food in Delhi's school canteens

The Delhi Food Safety Department and the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) will soon chalk out a policy on what kind of food is best suited for the city's school students.

Schools will be given strict guidelines to promote nutritious and healthy food in their canteens, and to completely avoid the sale of junk food.

In a meeting held recently, officials from the Food Safety Department and the FSSAI discussed the need to serve nutritious food to children as the issue of students' health was a high priority.

Strict new regulations could soon ban junk food from Delhi's school canteens 

“We will be working on a policy regarding the food served in school canteens. The health of the students will be kept on high priority. Food items with high nutritional value will be majorly served to the students,” said Dr Mrinalini Darswal, Commissioner, Department of Food Safety, Delhi Government. 

The Food and Drug Department monitors the food policy in the city through random surprise inspections, and by raiding "suspicious" food establishments.

It also collects samples of food items that could be adulterated, sub-standard, or unbranded. On average, it receives 125 food samples in a month for testing. 

The department also carries out consumer awareness campaigns, and works to educate those in the food business about food safety management systems as prescribed under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.

“We will also speak to the nutrition experts to understand the requirement of students and will work on a policy accordingly,” added Darswal. 

In October 2015, the Food authorities had issued guidelines to schools, making it compulsory to serve only wholesome and nutritious food in their canteens.

This guidance will be converted into a regulation in due course, after the prescribed process of inviting comments and suggestions from various stakeholders.

Officials said these guidelines will help control junk food consumption among pupils in India.

Prepared by an expert committee constituted by FSSAI, the guidelines give details of how consumption of junk food, which is high in fat, salt, and sugar, is linked with increasing cases of obesity, diabetes, and hypertension among school children.

The guidelines include the following principles: 

a) The benefits of balanced, fresh, and traditional food cannot be replaced.

b) Schools are not the right place to sell foods high in fat, salt, and sugar. 

c) Children are not the best judges of their food choices.

Obesity, diabetes and hypertension are rising alarmingly among school students, as they find it tempting to pick up packets of junk food in their canteens instead of eating the healthy, home-cooked food that might be packed in their lunch boxes.