DINAMALAR NEWS

FSSAI promotes healthy eating habits among kids, unveils book

New Delhi, Sep 7 Food regulator FSSAI has set out to create awareness among children on healthy eating habits by joining hands with educational boards like the CBSE and the NCERT.

As part of broader plans, it released a book today aimed at children detailing how to eat right.

The book has been launched in three categories for children in the age group of 4-7, 8-12 and 13-17 and covers a range of topics -- from food safety practices, personal hygiene and cleanliness habits and eating a balanced diet to packing a wholesome lunch-box. It also lays emphasis on preventing nutritional deficiencies and making healthy choices.

"Eating habits among children develop at a very early age which don't change easily. So, it is important to take care of their eating habits so that they remain healthy lifelong," FSSAI CEO Pawan Kumar Agarwal told PTI.

The initiative of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) involves partners such as ministries of health and HRD, the Niti Aayog, NGOs, educational boards like the CBSE and the NCERT, state governments and nutrition experts.

The 'Yellow Book' provides age appropriate content that can be adopted across schools through state education machineries as part of their curricular and co-curricular activities. The topics have been formulated after discussions, consultations and extensive engagement with the partners, the FSSAI said.

The book will be distributed in schools across India. "Our aim is to reach out to about 1 lakh schools in India initially. Gradually, we will try to connect with more and more schools," the CEO said.

Under the initiative, FSSAI said it has also launched the School Engagement Platform, a portal that works as an online tool for schools to register.

Vinod K Paul, Member (Health), Niti Aayog, unveiled the book along with FSSAI Chairperson Ashish Bahuguna.

No food safety violations during Onam

There are 16 Food Safety Officers in the district, for thousands of street food vendors.

Elders from various old age homes through out the state celebrated Onam with much fervour over the week. From laying flower carpets to special stage performances and traditional onam games their celebrations were no less than the rest of malayalis.

Thiruvananthapuram: The office of the Commissioner of Food Safety has no cases of violation of food safety norms to report this Onam, even though there are many street food vendors at various Onam week celebration venues. But celebrating this might be premature because one has to factor in how short-staffed the office is. There are 16 Food Safety Officers in the district, for thousands of street food vendors.

The actual number of street food joints is not clear. Both the state-level and district-level officials said that they did not know the actual number. When asked whether the current number of FSOs was sufficient, a district-level official said they would not be able to talk to the media about it. Under Kerala Vyapari-Vyavasayi Samithi’s Fast Food Owners’ Association, there are 786 food truck owners as members in the district, according to its district president P Stanley. 

Some truck owners own more than one food truck. So the actual number of food trucks in the district could be more than 786. He says that the number of ‘Thattukada owners’ under KVVS in Kovalam area alone is around 450. When asked if the officials will be doing the rounds to check the safety of food given out by the vendors, an official at the state office said that they would focus on their respective health circles. The FSOs are supported by the Food Safety intelligence wing. Still the total number of officials would not be adequate to cover the thousands of food vendors in the district.

FDA seizes substandard betel nut costing Rs 3.87 cr

Nagpur: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials have seized sub-standard betel nut costing Rs3.87 crore in raids conducted in last two days in various city godowns and cold godowns following information from public sources. FDA has sent 12 samples for testing.

FDA joint commissioner Shashikant Kekare told TOI that the biggest seizure costing over Rs2.5 crore was made from a single godown near Surabardi from Shri Vidyasagar Roadways. "Since the publication of the news of adulterated and substandard betel nut in newspapers, in last one month, FDA has been getting many calls from citizens informing about the storage at various places. We have seized only betel nuts. We are sure it will prove substandard and adulterated," he said.

The other seizures were made at Jaiswal Trading Company, Chikli Lay Out Kalamna, Bhopal Indore Roadlines, Bhandara road, Royal Marketing, Itwari, PPP Enterprise, Telipura, Trimurti Traders, Maskasath, PM Company, Telipura, ST Traders, Itwari and Nandi Gruh Udyog, Chikli Lay Out.

The raids were conducted under the supervision of Kekare and assistant commissioners FDA (food) Milind Deshpande and Sharad Kolte. The other team members included Abhay Deshpande, Manoj Tiwari, Vindo Dhawad, Praful Tople, Amit Uplap, Seema Surkar, Akhilesh Raut, Anand Mahajan, Bhaskar Nandanwar, Lalit Soyam, Anant Chaudhary and Pravin Umap from the vigilance wing of FDA.

The raids were conducted under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) Act and the 2011 rules.