Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has organised a National Summit on Food Safety and Nutrition landscape in India at Hotel Lalit, New Delhi. The event was chaired by chief guest Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI AYOG and he was accompanied by Ashish Bahuguna, Chairperson, FSSAI and Pawan Agarwal. During the summit, FSSAI launched several flagship initiatives to transform the food safety and nutrition landscape in India, a hitherto neglected field.
The event was marked with palpable excitement and enthusiasm. Over a hundred senior officials from civil society organizations, development agencies, academia, food businesses, government departments participated in this Summit.
FSSAI also launched its Safe and Nutritious Food (SNF) initiative that takes a citizen centric approach to transformative social and behavioural change. The Safe and Nutritious Food initiative reaches out to people everywhere: in their homes, workplaces, schools and when they eat out. The SNF portal would function as an online resource centre containing information on all these initiatives with access to resource materials developed by FSSAI, interactive guides on understanding food safety and nutrition and a gateway for everyone to participate in these initiatives through partnerships.
Social and behavioural change must begin early. Children are powerful change agencies. Therefore, to engage children, FSSAI has created Safe and Nutritious Food Mascots-Master Sehat and Miss Sehat, two superheroes. The mascots were unveiled through an entertaining yet informative skit. In the coming months, workshops, theatre and activations of these mascots will be done throughout India.
Speaking on the occasion, Kant said, “Earlier, I used to believe that FSSAI is the most bureaucratic organisation as nothing move quickly here but now the picture has changed. It is good to see that authority is putting various scanners and raising the bar of food safety and for that, the team of FSSAI should be complimented.”
“Though FSSAI has drafted numerous standards for food manufacturers, but there are still few who are still playing around with the safety of food. So there is a great need to take strict action against these violators as this will set an example for others.” During the event, Kant also released a book that focuses on the work done by FSSAI since its inception.