FSSAI Celebrates World Food Day with launch of Eat Right Book Series and Challenge for Smart Cities and School Children

New Delhi, October 16, 2020: FSSAI today organised a webinar aligning with the theme of World Food Day, 2020-Growth, Nourish and Sustain together. Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Hon’ble Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare presided the program and  Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey, the Hon’ble Minister of State for Health & Family Welfare also graced the occasion.

The Hon’ble Health Minister released the book ‘Do you Eat Right?’ that translates the technical concepts on food and nutrition and relevance of various Eat Right initiatives into simple conversational style for the general public. Food Safety and Hygiene Guidelines for Safe Reopening of School Canteen/Mess which provides best practices to be followed by schools in the ‘New Normal of COVID-19’. The ‘Orange Book’ was also launched for Eat Right Campus which serves as a resource guide to implement the mandatory food safety and hygiene requirements in campus canteens, ensure provision of healthy and environmentally sustainable food and build awareness among the individuals.

The Hon’ble Minister also released the Daily Requirements and Food Fortification- A handbook for States/UTs to address the prime concerns around food fortification, along with the first quarterly NetProFaN Newsletter entailing details of various activities conducted by the professionals working in the field of food safety and nutrition across the country.

FSSAI launched two challenges. One was the Eat Right Creativity Challenge based on the theme of ‘Eat Safe, Eat Healthy’ and ‘Food Safety during COVID 19’ for school students in two categories i.e. poster-making and photography.

In association with the Smart Cities Mission by the Ministry of Urban Affairs, FSSAI announced ‘The Eat Smart City Challenge’ to promote safe, healthy and sustainable food environment for improving public health and quality of life in the smart cities of the country.

Aligning with this year’s theme for World Food Day, FSSAI focused on elimination of trans fats from the food supply chain to ensure that the food being served to the population is safe and nutritious. Dr. Roderico H. Ofrin, WHO representative, during his special remarks emphasized on elimination of trans fat from the food supply chain by adopting the approach of ‘REPLACE’ which is a technical guidance to eliminate industrially-produced trans-fat from national food supplies and prevent non communicable diseases among the public.

Dr Harsh Vardhan in his keynote address highlighted that “WHO has called for elimination of trans fats from food supply by the year 2023. To support the WHO’s initiative, India has already committed to make India trans fat free by 2022, a year ahead of WHO’s target. FSSAI is also strengthening the testing of trans fat in the country by providing grants to the FSSAI notified laboratories to equip them with methods & manuals as well as tools to test trans fat in various food products. FSSAI shall be organizing a series of webinars and participative stakeholder interactions on trans fat to showcase the global success stories on trans fat replacement options and key learnings from national and global experiences in order to ensure right and authentic information reaches to all stakeholders”.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan further emphasized that Eat Right India along with Fit India program ensures total health of an individual. Eat Right India so integrated with the Swacch Bharat Mission and Jal Jeevan Mission. He expressed confidence that FSSAI would be the game changer by engaging the whole of government and society.

Shri Ashwani Kumar Choubey, Hon’ble Minister of State conveyed his good wishes to the entire team of FSSAI.

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