FSSAI to scale up `Eat Right Campus' programme over next two years

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is gearing up to scale up its ‘Eat Right Campus’ programme over the next two years, with the aim of promoting healthy and safe food across educational institutes, corporate offices, hospitals and government offices.

Eat Right Campus certificates are given to corporate offices and educational institutes after conducting third-party audits to check if they meet the parameters of the programme. The parameters include food safety measures, steps to ensure provision of healthy and environmentally sustainable food, and building awareness among the individuals in the campus to make the right food choices

So far 28 Eat Right Campus certificates have been awarded to educational institutes and corporate campuses, and 30 additional certificates are in the pipeline, according to FSSAI.

Responding to BusinessLine queries, FSSAI CEO Arun Singhal said: “In the next two years, we plan to scale up the initiative in a big way across the country. FSSAI is engaging various institutions of national importance, government colleges, universities, IITs, IIMs, hospitals, and Central government ministries, to enrol them into the programme.

“Additionally, FSSAI is working with industry associations such as CII (Confederation of Indian Industry), FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry), ASSOCHAM (Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India) and NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Service Companies)to enrol most of the bigger campuses, to begin with, and reach out to other corporates as we move forward. Finally, States will further engage with local campuses for enrolment. Therefore, we expect this initiative to grow exponentially in the coming years.”

Singhal said the food available in campuses should be safe and healthy, given that diet-related diseases such as obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and heart diseases are rising at an alarming rate.

So far, educational institutes such as IIT-Roorkee, IIT-Gandhinagar, IIM-Ahmedabad, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (Mussoorie) and Nirma University (Ahmedabad) have bagged the certificate. Corporate offices and campuses of players such as Marico (Mumbai), Wipro (Bengaluru), Mercedes-Benz India (Pune), ITC (Mysuru), HCL (Noida), Genpact (Gurugram), Hyundai Motor India (Kancheepuram) and Nestle India (Goa) have also got Eat Right Campus certificates.

Once enrolled in the programme, a campus or office premise undergoes a self-assessment or third-party audit by an FSSAI-empanelled agency, to identify gaps and areas of improvement based on a check-list. The campus administration is then given some time to address the gaps which may include training of food safety supervisors and on safe food practices.

Once these improvements are made, the campus undergoes a third-party audit and is given a rating on a five-star scale. If a campus scores three or more stars, it is certified as an Eat Right Campus, and the certification is valid for two years.