Secretariat, police academy among six govt institutes to be part of ‘eat right ’ campaign
JAIPUR: With the growing menace of lifestyle diseases, the health department will launch the ‘Eat Right Campus’ initiative to provide hygienic and healthy food at educational institutes, government institutions, offices and school campuses.
The Eat Right Campus (ERC) campaign will be kicked off from six government establishments in Jaipur by next month,” said Rohit Kumar Singh, additional chief secretary, health department. The Eat Right campaign has been launched by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) which has given a template to states to adopt.
“Eating habits are changing and lifestyle diseases are growing. More and more people are eating at their workplaces and so workplaces should provide safe and healthy diet to employees,” he said.the six campuses include the Swasthya Bhawan, the secretariat canteen, Rajasthan Police Academy, Officers Training School and two campuses of the State Institute of
Health and Family Welfare in Jaipur. Gradually this initiative will be expand across the state.“the fight against food adulteration is a subject that is close to the chief minister’s heart. So we are taking this initiative as part of the Nirogi Rajasthan campaign, to ensure that people have access to safe and healthy food,” said Singh.
To be eligible for certification, food businesses within campuses will have to be licensed or registered under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.
The certification process will involve identifying and rectifying gaps, food safety training and certification through FSSAI empanelled training partners.
Singh said health department staff at the State Institute of Health and Family Welfare is being trained by FSSAI and they will conduct the certification process. A certificate will be valid for two years.
After the certification, the establishments will be audited on various parameters and graded by third party auditors certified by the government of India, he said. A two star grading means partial compliance, three star means satisfactory compliance, four star means full compliance and five star means exemplary.
If the rating is below satisfactory then a second audit will be mandatory.
The Eat Right Campus programme involves creating awareness, training and capacity building of food handlers, facilitate third-party audits, certification process and sustenance, Any kind of campus, educational institutes, corporates, jails, defence establishments, hospitals, airports and railway stations can apply for the Eat Right Campus.
The audit parameters are eat safe, eat healthy, eat sustainably and building awareness. Eat safe parameters include food safety and hygiene include design facilities, control of operations, maintenance and sanitation, personal hygiene of food handlers and disposal of food items.
Eat healthy parameters include availability of healthy diet, use of fortified foods, availability of local and seasonal foods and limiting foods rich in fat, sugar and salt.
East sustainably parameters include minimizing the use of plastic, reduce food wastage, reusing cooking oil and water conservation. Building awareness includes engagement activities to build awareness about eating right. Welcoming the initiative, Dr Raman Sharma, senior professor, department of medicine, SMS Medical College, said that the incidence of lifestyle diseases is growing rapidly in India and Rajasthan.
“Diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, cancer, obesity, cardiac illnesses are on the rise and the situation is quite alarming. In fact, India is slated to overtake China in prevalence of lifestyle diseases. So diet and exercise is very important for physical and mental health,” he said.
TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR CERTIFICATION, FOOD BUSINESSES WITHIN INSTITUTES WILL HAVE TO BE LICENSED OR REGISTERED UNDER THE FOOD SAFETY
AND STANDARDS ACT