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The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has kick-started the Eat Right Challenge, an annual competition for districts and cities across the country. The aim of the competition is to encourage them to strengthen the food safety and regulatory environment and awareness among consumers to make better food choices.
This is part of the FSSAI’s large-scale initiative called Eat Right India (ERI) under the aegis of the Ministry of Health, to improve public health and combat negative nutritional trends to fight lifestyle diseases.
About 197 districts and cities have registered to participate in the competition. FSSAI will financially support the first 150 cities and districts that registered with a seed funding of ₹5 lakh to gear up for the challenge; cities and districts that come up with innovative models will be given additional funding for implementation.
Safe and sustainable food
Addressing officials of the registered districts virtually, Minister of Health and Family Welfare Harsh Vardhan said that with nearly 62 per cent of deaths in the country attributed to lifestyle-related or non-communicable diseases, it is imperative to create awareness about safe, healthy and sustainable food in the country.
He said FSSAI has been working towards making the Eat Right India a mass movement for the past two years. “The Eat Right Challenge will surely help strengthen our food ecosystem, bringing the thrust for self-compliance in food businesses by building their capacities, thereby, transforming the food environment with safe, healthy and sustainable diets,” he added.
The challenge will be led by designated officers under the guidance of the State Food Safety Commissioners/District Magistrates (DMs). Some of the key focus areas of the challenge will be to come up with measures to broaden the reach of registration/licensing, enforcement and surveillance efforts at the State level, creation of Eat Right Food environments, and nudge consumers to make better food choices.
Guidebook launched
The Minister said the challenge is a “unique way” to bring about innovation in the field of food safety, harnessing the rich intellect that India possesses. The ‘Eat Right Handbook’, a comprehensive guide for Food Safety Commissioners and district officials to adopt and scale up ERI initiatives was also launched.
As part of the ERI movement, FSSAI has been focussing on initiatives such as Clean Street Food Hubs, Eat Right Campus, Eat Right Schools and other mass awareness efforts.
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