Banning sale of of Junk foods near schools-Is any one serious?

In India if no decision is to be taken on any issue, especially at government level, the most effectively used strategy is to "set up" a committee which guarantees that the issue is buried at least for some time! Most recent case is the "decision" by the Women and Child Development Ministry of Government of India (GOI) to "consider" banning junk foods near schools constitutes an excellent one to illustrate this point. It was about 5 years ago that Uday Foundation, an NGO approached Delhi High Court (D-HC) pleading to impose a ban on sale of junk foods near schools where kids, with pocketful of money liberally provided by parents, buy unhealthy foods affecting their health in the long run. It was indeed a noble effort by this Foundation to help the nation to protect its budding citizens from the harmful effects of so called junk foods and they deserve our gratitude for this visionary move.to focus attention on this much neglected area. Looking back the D-HC, progressive as it is, allowed the appeal in December 2010, asking the central government to respond suitably to address this issue.

What is a junk food? Unfortunately there is no consensus on this much debated subject though food industry considers all the products manufactured by it are foods providing at least calories and/or proteins and/or other nutrients required by human beings. They further aver that the products made by it are as per safety norms prescribed by the appropriate authorities vested with strong powers. May be the industry has a point in that all foods which conform to national quality and safety norms are edible and serve the purpose of satiating hunger. Besides the industry is selling products which are accepted by the consumers on their own volition with no compulsion or external pressure. Implications of fat, that too saturated fats, in many life style diseases like CVD, obesity, blood pressure etc and unveiling the role of dietary fiber in diseases related to gastrointestinal tract created a great awareness about the importance of balanced foods and physical exercise leading to the campaign by consumers and consumer organizations against the food industry to change the product portfolio to shun products which according to them are unhealthy. It is generally understood that consuming regularly foods with "empty" calories (nil or low nutrient density) is not good for health and this can severely affect growing children in terms of starving them of vitally needed nutrients at the most critical stage of their development. That is how the junki food concept arose originally in wealthy countries like the US where more than 35% of the population is considered obese as measured by the Body Mass Index (BMI) yardstick.

Whether it is the desire to ape the West or due to genuine concern, in India also the issue regarding junk foods was raised from time to time with neither the social organizations nor the government giving serious attention. Though a segment of the consumer community was worried about the long term impact of not restraining food industry to churn out unhealthy foods, targeted especially at the most vulnerable group of children. The topicality of the subject can be gauged by the fact that even to day many countries are finding it difficult to address this problem with total satisfaction to all the stakeholders. The problem became acute with the explosive growth of electronic media and kids became more vulnerable to commercial advertisements promoting these so called junk foods and to add to this the proportion of the commercials to the actual content of the programs is continuously increasing. Unfortunately many parents find it difficult to resist demands by their wards to buy these patently unhealthy food products which do provide fantastic eating pleasure making it addictive. Foods which are so appealing and irresistible are invariably rich in sugar, fat or salt while healthy foods with low levels of these ingredients, rich in fiber are unappealing to most of them. It is conceded that promoting eating of fruits or vegetables in place of fried or baked snacks is a near impossible task.   

Though scores of seminars and workshops have been organized from time to time to discuss this issue, nothing concrete emerged during the last 3 decades. It was left to a young voluntary organization, Uday Foundation devoted to helping promote the cause of distressed children to rake up this issue in the year 2010 approaching D-HC which resulted in the directive given by D-HC to the Central Government to ban junk foods near the vicinity of schools. After debating the issue for almost 2 years , the court issued another order in Jan 2012 asking the Health Ministry to take action to ban sale of junk foods within 6 months. Shamelessly the GOI after sitting on the issue for almost 8 months, "informed" the court that the task of laying down guidelines had been entrusted to its toothless agency pompously called Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). Nothing happened till April 2013 till D-HC gave another 3 months for GOI to complete the work by July 2013. In Sept 2013 the Court again asked GOI to put in place necessary guidelines for banning junk food sale near schools. Still nothing happened and to add to the delay the industry filed objection to any such ban in Oct 2013 which was over ruled by D-HC. It is against this background that GOI set up an expert group in March 2014 to consider the issue. Alas this group only"recommended" regulation of sale of junk foods. Subsequently another expert committee deliberated the issue and came up with some guidelines in August 2015.    

This high-level committee set up by the Women & Child Welfare Ministry suggested to impose a ban by street vendors within 200 meters of a school. It also wanted the civic authorities not to issue licences to shops and restaurants selling food to uniformed children within 200 meters of a school. Unfortunately the onus of determining what constitutes a junk food was put back to the GOI. It wanted GOI to decide about a comprehensive definition of junk food in the context of children. It is reported to have further suggested that a list should be drawn of "desirable" food items to be offered in school canteens as well as labelling of pre-packaged food, stating clearly as "unfit" for infant/children/pregnant and lactating mothers or persons with specific ailments".  It further claimed that it reviewed the prevalent practices of regulation of junk food in 23 countries and suggested establishment and management of school canteens besides bringing about comprehensive advertisement/promotion campaign to be undertaken jointly by different stakeholder Ministries. The Ministry had constituted the committee under the Chairmanship of Director, National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, to look into matters relating to availability of junk food at various places accessible to children.The committee included representatives from Niti Aayog, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Department of AYUSH, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Bureau of Indian Standards, food regulator FSSAI, National Institute of Public Cooperation & Child Development, Indian Council of Medical Research and independent experts in the field of nutrition and clinical psychology/behavioural science.

Now there is some thing to go on regarding this issue, but it is not clear how long the GOI will take to legislate on this important issue. One must remember that India does not lack laws with teeth on the statute books but the country fails miserably in administering these laws to achieve the intended purpose. Whether it is lack of funds or lack of seriousness, it is difficult to understand. It is understandable that being a federal governing system, GOI has to depend on local authorities to implement national regulations and in this case also passing legislation to ban junk foods is not going to help unless adequate monitoring system is put in place to enforce its provisions. Probably putting in place a ban on sale of junk foods may be a beginning which will at least deter a few vendors from selling them near the schools. Ultimately an acute awareness about the dangers of junk foods among the kids as well as the school authorities can contribute much to eradicate this evil. 

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

PROVIDING MILK TO KIDS AT SCHOOL-KARNATAKA PROGRAM

There are no two opinions that milk is a complete food containing practically every nutrient required for normal health. Its protein, Casein (3.5%) is one of the highest quality nutrients, next only to egg and meat while milk is one of the richest sources of Calcium, an essential building material for strong bones ( about 120 mg per 100 ml). Besides milk is also a good source of Vitamins like A, B6, B12, C,K,D,K, E, Thiamine, Niacin, Biotin, Riboflavin, Folates and Pantothenic acid. Ideally regular consumption of about 250 ml equivalent of milk a day can be expected to boost the nutritive value of the daily diet very significantly. Looking from the milk production landscape and availability for consumption, average Indian is supposed to be consuming 276 ml of milk per day which is more than what is recommended. If this is so Indians can be considered healthy. But what is the ground reality?

It is true India is the top milk producing country in the world to day with the production estimated around 130 million tons which is anticipated to go up to 170 million tons by the year 2020. The per capita availability figure hides more than what it reveals because in a state like Punjab with affluent population almost gulping a liter of milk per person a day, the same falls precipitously in few other states dropping to almost to 100 ml per day per capita. Even here well to do population with high income consume much higher quantity while poor and low income people cannot afford to buy the recommended minimum quantity due to economic compulsions. This is a classical case of low consumption among plenty! 

The operation flood program and the white revolution ushered in by late Dr V.Kurien provided the foundation for producing more than that required through technological, social and management wonders but unless the purchasing power of people is increased the milk cannot reach those who really deserve, suffering from utter malnutrition and morbidity. With the processing capacity of the cooperative dairies all over the country reaching all time high, each state milk federation is flush with milk, not knowing what to do with the surplus. To some extent fluid milk is converted into skimmed milk powder (SMP) with long life and limited market off take has created a situation where these federations are holding large stocks of SMP not knowing what to do with it. A state like Karnataka which gives Rs 4 per liter to the producer as monetary incentive for increased production has found a new way to "dispose off" the surplus milk by being "magnanimous" in buying the same for supply to school kids in government and aided schools studying from class I to X and also to Anganwadi centers to feed children between the ages 3 and 6 years. A win-win situation indeed!

According to the reports appearing in the media government has launched its ambitious Ksheera Bhagya scheme on 1 August this year under which each school attending kid is given in the morning before the start of the school 150 ml of milk procured from the nearest cooperative dairy or 20 gm of SMP for reconstitution with hot water (with no sugar) for drinking. Besides Anganwadis are supposed to be provided with adequate quantity of SMP at the rate of 15 gm per child for admixing with hot water before feeding them. According to some sources in the government total requirement of milk would be around 7-8 lakh liters per day out of which 50% could be in fluid form, rest being SMP. Measured by any yardstick this is a mammoth welfare scheme that will benefit 65 lakh school going children and 35 lakh beneficiaries in Anganwadi Centers. State administration has even thought of children below 3 years to whom milk is planned to be delivered to their homes! 

Financial out go on the above account for the government is estimated to be of the order of about Rs 1500 crore annually. For a government that wants to uplift the nutritional status of the children of the state the above amount may not be very high but what bothers many observers is the logistics involved in delivering the promised food in safe condition to the beneficiaries in time and potential for hijacking the much valued milk and milk powder for the purpose other than that is intended. Also questionable is the extent of impact such a project can create on the health of the children. According to the nutritional guidelines of ICMR, an average consumer is supposed to be taking about 250 gm of milk products every day as fluid milk and curd which is equivalent to about 30 gm of powder. Growing children will need more considering their active growth phase and it may be too much to expect any thing positive coming out of this experiment. Supplying milk three times a week is also not a good idea as this will provide a disincentive for school kids to absent themselves on days when milk is not provided. However one should not prejudge this scheme and critics must wait for at least an year before drawing their daggers against this populist scheme.

A serious worrying factor is whether safe potable water will be available in all the schools for reconstitution purpose. If not, this scheme could be an invitation for disaster as it happened in Bihar where 23 innocent kids had to loose their lives because of poison contaminated midday meals served to them. Similarly SMP does not have indefinite shelf life and if they are not stored properly they can be affected by infestation with insects compromising its safety. One of the posers to the government of Karnataka was whether all children will drink plain milk without sugar as making kids drink milk is a problem in almost all households world over. With exposure to products like Horlicks, Boost, Bournvita etc will the kids agree to drink just plain milk? It is indeed a million dollar uncertainty that has to be expected. 

Another poser is whether all the kids are to be covered as many of them must be coming from reasonably well to do families having the wherewithal to access milk daily. An alternative could be to segregate children based on their weight-height parameters and health status and offering a higher quantity every day to only those really deserving. This can stretch the resources a little more with possibility of higher impact within a short span of time. An uncertainty that may face the scheme is whether this is going to be a permanent feature of the state policy or just a short term program to tide over the immediate milk glut being experienced in the state. With general election not very far away there is a possibility that the Ksheera Bhagya scheme may face the axe once the elections are over!    

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

SCHOOLS IN INDIA-ARE THEY MEANT FOR COOKING FOODS?

Here is an interesting piece of news coming from Delhi which is both intriguing and paradoxical. Intriguing because the Parliamentary Committee has not made any suggestion as to how hot food can be supplied in packed condition and paradoxical because packed foods supplied till a few years ago were discontinued on a clamor for fresh foods.  

"Taking note of the increasing complaints about the food served under mid-day meal scheme in schools,a Parliamentary panel has suggested distribution of packaged food to children. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on HRD has asked the Ministry to "explore the feasibility of providing packaged nutrition food in conformity with norms and standards of the scheme". This may be done initially on a pilot basis in some selected districts to ascertain its viability, it suggested. The food cooked in schools for children has come under the scanner especially on hygiene and quality. Reports indicate that even in Delhi, quality of food being served in schools was found to be wanting in norms and standards prescribed under the programme. If the situation is such in the capital, what would be the position in interior could well be imagined," the committee, headed by Rajya Sabha member Oscar Fernandes, said. The panel also drew the attention of the working group which had suggested roping in the Food and Nutrition Board to provide training to teachers and cook-cum-helpers and for regular monitoring of food safety among others. One of the particular concerns of the committee was that hundreds of schools were lagging behind in meeting the infrastructure requirements, including construction of kitchen cum-stores, under the Right to Education (RTE) Act. The deadline for meeting these requirements had ended on March 31. According to ministry reports, of 9.55 lakh kitchen-cum- stores sanctioned between 2006-07 and 2012-13, only 5.99 lakh or 63 per cent of them have been constructed".

Some of the comments made by the Committee are relevant and must be followed up. But the suggestion to explore supply of packed foods is fraught with many complications. It was during nineteen seventies that the state of Karnataka implemented a project to manufacture ready to eat nutritious food called energy food with 360 calories of energy, 16 gm of protein and a host of essential vitamins and minerals in a 100 gm portion to be provided to every school coming child in all its schools. This product was developed by the internationally acclaimed Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore and five factories were set up to make about 25000 tons during a school year sufficient to feed 1.25 million children a day. As this product had no commercial value pilferage was hardly a problem with the entire production reaching the targeted beneficiaries. Precisely for this reason there were motivated criticism against energy food and the state government bowing to the pressure of the vested interests closed all the 5 factories with absolutely no justification at all. Two decades after this sorry episode, the Government of India is trying to revive the concept of packed foods having realized the folly of cooking foods in the premises of the school fraught with umpteen number of problems. 

Midday school feeding program is, no doubt, a sound concept the major objective being enhancement of school admissions and improvement of attendance. It is sad story that in spite of massive funding, by the government, about 8.5 million kids still do not go to any school and school attendance on an average does not go beyond 50%. What a colossal waste of human resources! Though the literacy rate in the country is about 70% there are states like Manipur, Uttar Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Jharkand where about 40% of the population remains illiterate! There are reported to be about 0.8 million schools in the country under the government control most of which are ill equipped to impart any quality education. Government and its experts feel that food will attract more children to the schools but even if food does attract them what type of citizens will emerge from such schools without teachers, class rooms, toilet facilities, provision for potable water etc so essential for imparting education? 

Under the above pitiable condition, is it not madness to introduce cooked foods for serving in hot condition to each and every child? Do all the children need food at the school as many of them coming from well to do families do not consume the school cooked foods? Where do these schools go for accessing to clean water as most rural areas do not enjoy protected water supply? Is it not true that the hot food supply scheme is vulnerable to food poisoning and other diseases because of foods made by people ignorant about hygiene and sanitation? Who ensures that food is cooked without exposure to the elements as most schools do not have decently equipped kitchens? what about the wastage due to some children absenting and others not coming to the school? How do these schools insulate themselves from food inflation as many vegetables, edible oil, pulses and other inputs are priced high in the market depending on the season of the year and demand supply pull of a dynamic market? Fruits can never be supplied because the cheapest fruit papaya itself costs upward of Rs 20 per kilo! 

Of course the above questions are tough to answer and government just gloated over these issues before jumping into the hot food wagon landing into innumerable logistical and safety problems. Ideally all consumers, whether young or old like hot foods but this desire needs to be compromised depending on the situation. In the case of schools the environment and the conditions obtaining in most of them are not congenial for cooking any food in a satisfactory way requiring many compromises including adverse effect on the kids who eat these foods. How foolish it is for the Government to invest millions of rupees on building kitchen facilities while the more critical teaching infrastructure is in shambles! What is the purpose of setting up a school? Can the focus of the teachers be diverted in managing a cafeteria which after all requires lot of time and skill which are lacking as far as these hard pressed teachers are concerned. How are the teachers going to be assessed for their performance, the academic performance of their wards or the quality and quantity of foods made to feed the children? Parliamentary Committee is right in asking for a shift from freshly cooked foods to packaged foods and GoI should not lose any more time in heeding to this well considered suggestion.

It may not be proper to ridicule all those NGOs who might be doing a good job as far as providing hot food to many children in thousands of schools across the country. For example ISKON organization with its avowed objective of serving humanity has contributed immensely in this area after accepting responsibility in some states. Its high tech cooking facility and distribution management can be the envy of any established caterers in the country.According to its claim it is serving about half a million kids through its Akshaya program and is planning to expand its coverage to 2 millions a day by 2020. There are a few other organizations also active in the field but even in the best managed system, feeding fresh foods is a logistical nightmare vulnerable to mishaps any time. One of the justifications for freshly cooked food being offered is that the food preference among children varies enormously and one type of product served in schools in one area might not be liked in other areas and therefore local cooking has the flexibility of varying the menu tailoring to the local taste preferences.      

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com