Eat Right Campus Initiative

In Context

  • Four police stations of the New Delhi district have been certified as ‘Eat Right Campus’ by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

About 

  • The ‘Eat Right Campus’ initiative led by FSSAI aims to promote safe, healthy and sustainable food in campuses such as schools, universities, colleges, workplaces, hospitals, tea estates etc. across the country. 
  • The objective is to improve the health of people and the planet and promote the social and economic development of the nation.
  • Evaluation Criteria: Benchmarks have been created on four different parameters based on which campuses are evaluated and certified as ‘Eat Right Campus’.
    • These parameters include food safety measures, steps to ensure the provision of healthy and environmentally sustainable food and building awareness among the individuals on the campus to make the right food choices. 

Benefits

  • It can provide immense benefits to the campus and the individuals in the campus not only in terms of health but also economics. 
    • Safe, healthy and sustainable food on the campus would reduce the incidence of foodborne illnesses, deficiency diseases and non-communicable diseases among the people in the campus. 
    • This means less absenteeism and loss of working hours and greater wellbeing, motivation and productivity of people. 
    • This would also reduce the burden of healthcare costs for the workplace, institution, hospital, jail or tea estate. 
    • All these factors would ultimately result in economic benefits to the campus. 

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI)

  • It was set up in 2008 for the proper monitoring of food hygiene and quality in India.
  • It was established under the Food Safety and Standard Act, 2006. The Act established FSSAI and the State Food Safety Authorities for each State.
  • The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India is the administrative Ministry of FSSAI.
  • HQ: New Delhi

Some Initiatives of FSSAI

  • Eat Right India: To make good quality food accessible to every citizen of the country
  • Clean Street Food: This involves training the street food vendors and making them aware of the violations as per the FSS Act 2006. This will also help in the social and economic upliftment of street food vendors
  • Diet4Life:  This is another initiative taken by FSSAI, to spread awareness about metabolic disorders.

Source: TH