FSSAI starts Eat Right Campus in Vijayawada to promote quality food in educational institutions

We are in talks with VR Siddhartha Engineering College and another college to transform the canteens in their vicinity to get certified as Eat Right Campus, the official said
Pic only for representational purpose (Pic credits: Express)
Pic only for representational purpose (Pic credits: Express)

The officials of the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) started 'Eat Right Campuses' in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh so as to promote safe, healthy and sustainable food in campuses: schools, universities, colleges, workplaces as well as hospitals. For the same, FSSAI officials selected two colleges in the city to educate the canteen organisers on the need of supplying quality food to the students, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express. 

The decision was reportedly taken after the FSSAI officials found most of the canteens operating in educational institutions are operating their businesses without any necessary licences from the department concerned, and other irregularities. Giving more details, a senior official from FSSAI said, "After many canteens offering services to students in the educational institutions, found to have running sans FSSAI licence, we served notices to the organisers to comply with FSSAI rules and regulations. However, none of them approached us seeking FSSAI licence."

"In order to ensure students consume nutritious food in the college canteens, we have decided to certify some colleges as 'Eat Right Campuses' as part of the FSSAI initiative. In a first step, we are in talks with VR Siddhartha Engineering College and another college to transform the canteens in their vicinity to get certified as Eat Right Campus," the official added. 

What is Eat Right India?

It is a flagship mission of FSSAI which aims at ensuring that the citizens of the country get safe and nutritious food. The Eat Right Campus initiative mainly focuses on promoting safe, healthy and sustainable food on campuses such as schools, universities, colleges, workplaces, hospitals, tea estates and other public places across the country.

Sharing the objective of the initiative, the official said, "The objective of Eat Right Campus is to improve the health of people and promote the socio-economic development of the nation. However, certification initiatives are not mandatory to adopt but are advisable as it would help the students to get quality food."

Further, explaining how this campaign will be executed, the official said, a mandatory inspection will be carried out by the food safety inspectors in the canteen to ensure four parameters such as licensing as well as registration of food service providers on the campus, compliance to food safety and hygiene standards as per schedule-4 of the Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Act, 2006 and building inspection.

Giving more details, the officials said, "The Eat Right India is based on three key areas — Eat Safe, Eat Healthy and Eat Sustainable. Not just about being healthy, it provides other benefits economically. Eating nutritious and healthy food reduces the incidents of food-borne, deficiency and non-communicable diseases among the students. This helps in less absenteeism in students and loss of working hours among employees, greater wellbeing, motivation and productivity of people," the FSSAI officials added. 

Additionally, the food safety officials said more colleges will be brought under the Eat Right Campus initiative under the second phase, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express. 

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