There are about 100 prisons among the 2,900-plus campuses which the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has certified as ‘Eat Right Campuses’, as part of its public health initiative to improve access to clean nutritious food.
The programme — which also covers educational institutions, workplaces, and hospitals — is part of FSSAI’s Eat Right India movement, and involves auditing, training food handlers, and then certification, which is valid for two years. Currently, all the State Bhavans in the national capital are undergoing audit and training.
Prominent Central jails that have been certified under the initiative are the Tihar in Delhi, the Central Jail in Bihar’s Gaya district, Modern Central Jail in Punjab, and the Central Jail at Rewa in Madhya Pradesh. Several district and mandal jails have also participated in the programme. The highest number of certified prisons are in Uttar Pradesh, followed by Punjab, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh.
Audit, training, certification
“The programme is divided into phases, and we start with a 48-point audit of any place that has applied for certification. Following the audit, the food handlers are trained. For the prisons programme, the idea is that safe and clean food is made available to both inmates and prison staff,’’ said a senior FSSAI official.
He added that the first self-assessment or third-party audit by an FSSAI empanelled agency, based on a checklist, encourages the campus administration to take steps to address gaps.
“A critical step of this process includes training of food safety supervisors and food handlers in the campus through FSSAI’s Food Safety Training and Certification (FoSTaC) programme. FoSTaC is designed to impart training to food handlers on good hygiene and manufacturing practices. Once these improvements are made, the campus undergoes a final audit by the same FSSAI-empanelled agency and is given a certification for Eat Right Campus,’’ he explained.
Safe, healthy, sustainable
According to FSSAI, the campaign is based on three pillars: Eat Safe, Eat Healthy, and Eat Sustainable. The programme is focussed on personal and surrounding hygiene, combating adulteration, eliminating toxic residues in food, and preventing the hazards of used cooking oil. Besides this, a balanced diet is encouraged, with diversification, fortified staples, the elimination of trans and saturated fats, and the reduction of salt and sugar.
“We are also keen to bring in a process where food is not wasted, people are encouraged to eat local and seasonal foods,’’ noted FSSAI.
