District Development Commissioner Rajouri, Vikas Kundal today chaired a meeting of the concerned members of the District Level Advisory Committee (DLAC) to review the implementation of Food Safety & standards Act and Eat right challenge campaign in the district.
Officers who attended the meeting included SSP, Mohd Aslam; ADDC, Pawan Kumar; CPO, Mohammad Khurshid; GM DIC, Ashwini Sharma; Principal GMGHSS Rajouri, Abdul Raof Dar; Assistant Commissioner Food safety, Ajeet Singh; Assistant Controller legal metrology, Rajesh; FSOs and other concerned officers.
At the outset, the Assistant Commissioner FS highlighted the objective of the Food Safety Act and said that the Act provides for protection of the consumers from health hazards and financial losses caused by foods that violate the food regulations.
He further informed that the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has started ‘Eat Right Challenge 2’ a competition for districts and cities with an aim to encourage people to make more nutritious choices in food consumption and district/city authorities to promote local food and reduce the use of chemicals in food production.
It was also informed that there are two components of the Eat Right campaign including Eat Right Schools and Eat Right campus. The Eat Right School program aims at creating awareness about food safety, nutrition & hygiene among school children, and through them among the community at large.
Elaborating further, the AC FS informed that the Eat Right Campus initiative has been launched for colleges, universities, institutions, workplaces, hospitals, jails and tea estates to support them to ensure safe, healthy and sustainable food for the people who spend the majority of their time in these campuses.
Seeking the number of Food Business operators registered by the Food Safety department under FSSAI, it was informed that 5000 FBOs have been registered with the department. The DDC asked the concerned officer to ensure that all the FBOs of the district were registered under FSSAI.
Stressing on spreading mass awareness about the Eat Right Challenge Campaign, the DC asked the concerned to educate the people about the benefits of adopting healthy food habits so that the objectives of the campaign are achieved on the ground.
The concerned officer was also asked to register all the workplaces dealing with food items under the Eat Right Campus. The DDC also asked the concerned officer to liaison with the RBSK team and take up distribution of medicines like albendazole, iron and folic acid tablets among the beneficiaries.