Discussions were held on how government and the private sector can bring awareness of nutritious food
Health Foods And Dietary Supplements Association (HADSA) and Hexagon Nutrition recently organised a webinar on ’Tackling Malnutrition through Food System – Why Public-Private Partnerships are necessary.’
Ajit Singh, President-HADSA & Chairman, ACG, gave an insight on malnutrition. Singh mentioned, “Elimination of malnourishment and cure needs no vaccination but cooperation and public-private partnerships. It needs global partnerships as it is too big a pandemic to be resolved by either the public or private sectors. It needs global cooperation between countries.”
Pritee Chaudhary, Director – East & West Region, FSSAI Mumbai in her special address spoke about hunger which may be in a rural or urban form; child or adult; male and female and in every aspect, it would be different, and the problems faced may be different.
Chaudhary opined that the private and public sectors should do such activities of combating malnutrition as CSR without thinking about profits. “We look forward to continuous partnerships with HADSA in various activities in future,” she mentioned.
Dr Vaibhav Kulkarni, Board Member, HADSA emphasised that there is a need for public and private partnerships to build awareness among consumers to make healthy and nutritious food choices. The private sector can play a more significant role in ensuring that nutritious food is accessible to more people and at affordable prices. Private companies need to build partnerships with the government and NGOs to create awareness of nutritious food. Going by the current scenario what we are in good nutrition is the best immunity builder to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr Nikhil Kelkar, Jt MD, Hexagon Nutrition and Executive Committee member HADSA opined that strategies like early detection of malnutrition and intervention, nutrition education, appropriate micronutrient supplementation, growth monitoring and promotion, therapeutic nutrition and food fortification would be the way forward.
The panel discussion was moderated by Deepti Gulati, Nutrition & Public Health Specialist. She stated that a high level of malnutrition, specifically micronutrient malnutrition in India is unacceptable. Additionally, moderate to severe acute malnutrition in children is also on the rise.
Sheryl Salis, Founder, Nurture Health Solutions talked about obesity, which is a big challenge and the number has gone up during the pandemic. Inculcating good habits right from childhood will go a long way in adulthood as well. When we look at Poshan control, we should look at diet diversity and nutrient density which is crucial to our population. Salis also touched upon how to prevent malnutrition and improve nutrition.
Dr Sirimavo Nair, Professor in Foods and Nutrition, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda & Ex-Member Scientific Panel FSSAI spoke on how comprehensive healthcare can address and tackle malnutrition and the rationale of public-private partnerships.
Arun Lal, Sr. VP, Hexagon Nutrition talked about the need for collaboration to improve nutrition through food fortification and critical issues/strategies to help sustain partnerships.
Dr Sadanand Kulkarni, Head, Medical Regulatory, Vigilance, Quality, Fresenius Kabi explained how the industry can help tackle malnutrition, perspective on industry partnerships on nutrition and what steps need to be taken by the industry to help promote good nutrition practices to combat malnutrition.
Poonam Shankar, Senior Research Scientist, Himalaya Wellness shared her views on how the industry can participate in tackling malnutrition. Products, promotional activities, CSR etc. are the ways health and nutrition are being promoted by industry.
Akshat Khandelwal, President, CMAM Association of India briefed on how CMAM Association supports the Poshan Maah, an initiative of the government and major opportunities and challenges in mainstreaming RUTF/EDNS.
Kaushik Desai, Secretary-General, HADSA concluded the webinar with a vote of thanks to the dignitaries and participants.