Indore
Don’t be surprised when your school going kid tells you about the ways to check adulteration in food or about nutritious food.
Under the Eat Right initiative of Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI), over 65 schools including 40 government schools registered and taught students about food safety practices.
Interestingly, the FSSAI has removed schools from the initiative as it was badly hit by Covid spread and schools were shut across the country, but local food safety officials went out of their way and continued to spread awareness to children.
“School students are best teachers as they teach elders about the best practices which they learn. Following the same, we trained the teachers of various schools across the city about healthy eating practices and ways to check adulteration,” Food Safety Officer Avashesh Agrawal said.
He said that the major participation was of the students and teachers of government schools. Students were also trained for reading the labels of every food product to know how healthy it is for them.
“Schools had appointed their health and wellness ambassadors who were trained by us and they transferred the learning among children. Even during Covid, the practice was continued through online mode and students shared the videos with us also,” Agrawal said.
Innovations under Eat Right by local food safety officers
1 A list of schools was taken from the District Education Officer and the schools were contacted to run Eat Right activities.
2 Information was shared with schools about food safety and check on adulteration through social media in form of video, messages, and posters
3 Learning Material was shared and training was given to appoint health and wellness ambassadors
4 Certificates for health wellness ambassadors were issued by FSSAI
5 Continuous training and awareness programmes organised
