To promote healthy eating habits among students, the Nagaland government on Tuesday asked schools to ban the sale of junk food within the school premises as well as in a radius of 200 metres from each school, reports Indian Express.
In a notification, the Nagaland Board of School Education has informed all schools about the dangers of consuming foods high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) such as chips, fried foods and soft drinks and also asked them to take steps to make children and parents aware about obesity and other diseases.
The notification comes in response to a report by the ministry of Women and Child Development on the problem of consumption of junk food available especially in and around schools, says a report by Eastern Mirror.
Taking recommendation from the report, the notification further asks schools to put together a School Canteen Management Committee, which would include teachers, parents, students and canteen operators and their functions will be:
- To be responsible for providing healthy food to schoolchildren and also for ensuring that no junk food found its way to school campuses
- To conduct timely checking of the quality of raw materials and ingredients and decide the lunch items to be prepared in the school canteen/kitchen.
- To see that the food in schools are up to standard and meet the guidelines as outlined by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India
- To avail the expertise of nutritionists, health specialist and display the contact numbers of Doctors/Medical Officers who can be contacted in case of an emergency on notice boards, labs, canteen, etc