Jun 14, 2019
Food Safety and Standards Authority of India proposes ban on junk food ads in and around schools
HIGHLIGHTS
FSSAI has proposed banning advertisements of unhealthy food in and around school premises in an attempt to promote safe and wholesome food among school children, its CEO Pawan Kumar Agarwal said Thursday.
New Delhi: FSSAI has proposed banning advertisements of unhealthy food in and around school premises in an attempt to promote safe and wholesome food among school children, its CEO Pawan Kumar Agarwal said Thursday.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has prepared a draft regulation on availability of safe, wholesome and nutritious food in schools and the same has been sent to the health ministry for approval, he added.
"We have proposed to put a curb on advertisements and promotion of food that is not healthy in school premises and 50 metres surroundings," Agarwal told PTI on the sidelines of an Assocham conference on school healthcare. In March 2015, the Delhi High Court had directed the food regulator to come out with regulations to promote healthy food for school children. "About three years ago, the High Court had asked us to come out with regulation on healthy diets for school children.
We have been struggling to put that regulation together. Because if you have to make a law, it has to be implemented," Agarwal said while addressing the conference. In the draft regulation, FSSAI has defined healthy diet based on some parameters. "How do you define healthy diet? That is at the heart of that regulation.
We cannot say that because it (food product) is coming from MNCs it is unhealthy, some of the Indian food can also be unhealthy. Therefore we have to have a matrix that defines healthy food fairly and objectively," Agarwal said. "We have come out with a draft regulation that will be in place," he added. Last year, FSSAI had put this draft regulation in public domain for comments.
It proposed restrictions on the sale of junk food including noodles, chips, carbonated drinks and confectionery in and around schools. While bringing this draft, FSSAI had said the objective was to restrict/limit the consumption and availability of most common HFSS food (junk food) like chips, sugar sweetened carbonated and non-carbonated beverages, ready-to-eat noodles, pizzas, burgers and confectionery.
Addressing the conference, Agarwal emphasised on maintaining healthy diet, saying that 6 out of 10 diseases are diet related. "If we have safe and healthy food and keep ourselves fit, most of the disease may not come," he added. Agarwal highlighted the initiatives taken by FSSAI in the last few years to promote safe, nutritious and wholesome food in schools, but stressed on taking this campaign to national level.
Draft regulation for safe, wholesome, nutritious food for school children to be put in place
The initiatives taken by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) in the school space from point of view of inculcating right eating habits have not reached national scale so far, its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Pawan Kumar Agarwal said at an ASSOCHAM event in New Delhi.
"There has been good participation from Delhi schools, Tamil Nadu officers were taking interest, so it saw a good participation but it is not really a pan-India phenomenon," said Agarwal inaugurating an ASSOCHAM National Symposium on School Healthcare.
Recalling meeting of health minister with FSSAI officials on the occasion of World Food Safety Day to get a sense of what the organisation has been doing in the space of promoting healthy eating habits, Agarwal said, "He was quite impressed but obviously he also realised that these initiatives, however are extremely thoughtful but the challenge is to make it a truly mass movement."
It will not become a mass movement unless we integrate food in our school systems, he said. "Not merely confining to health and wellness ambassadors and coordinators, it has to be the whole of school which has to be involved in this exercise of getting the school children to eat the right stuff," he added.
Seeking cooperation of education industry he added that there is lot more that needs to be done. "We are still in some sense in mode of consolidation to bring all these elements together and see how we can move forward and take up a national movement around eat right in the schools.
Agarwal also said that FSSAI has come out with draft regulations on healthy diets for school children which will also be in place. "About three years a High Court had asked us to come out with regulations on healthy diets for school children, and we have been struggling to put that regulation together because if we make a law it has to be implemented."
He added, "How do you define 'healthy diets,' that is at the heart of that regulation, we had to have a metrics that defines healthy foods, fairly objectively, now we have come out with draft regulations and that will also be put in place."
Agarwal also informed that in the draft regulation for safe, wholesome and nutritious food for school children, FSSAI has proposed to impose curbs on advertising, promotion and endorsement of food products that are not healthy in school premises and within 50-meter radius of school, while earlier it was only about availability in school canteens.
Curbs sought on advertising of junk food near schools
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is looking to put curbs on advertisement or promotion of unhealthy food not only inside school premises but also in the vicinity of schools.
With such a move, the regulator aims to promote wholesome and nutritious food and restrict the consumption of high sugar, salt and fat products in and around school premises where children are without parental supervision. This is part of the draft Food Safety and Standards (Safe and Wholesome Food for School Children) Regulations.
Speaking at an Assocham event, Pawan Agarwal, CEO, FSSAI, said the food safety regulator has proposed to impose curbs on advertising, promotion and endorsement of unhealthy food products in school premises as well as within 50-metre radius of school surroundings.
The regulator first began looking at this issue in 2015, after Delhi High Court had directed it to come out with regulations to promote healthy food for school children. In that year, it had also released draft guidelines on this issue.
The food safety authority aims to define healthy diets based on certain metrics. “How do you define healthy diet? That is at the heart of that regulation. Therefore we have to have a matrix that defines healthy food fairly and objectively,” he stated.
In the draft guidelines released earlier, the regulator had identified chips, sugar-sweetened carbonated and non-carbonated beverages, samosa, French fries, pizzas among others as HFSS foods.
Under the aegis of a self-regulatory global alliance, several key international packaged food companies already voluntary do not advertise their food products to children below the age of 12 years and in primary schools.
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