Eat-Right-School
- Inspired by the National Health Policy 2017 and flagship programs such as Ayushman Bharat, POSHAN Abhiyaan, and Swacch Bharat Mission, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has launched a comprehensive effort to transform India’s food system. This initiative aims to ensure the availability of safe, healthy, and sustainable food for all Indian citizens through the ‘Eat Right India’ movement.
- FSSAI is actively implementing various initiatives to enhance food safety and nutrition across the nation. Among these initiatives is the ‘Eat Right School’ program, designed to raise awareness about food safety, nutrition, and hygiene among school children. This program recognizes the influential role children play in driving behavioral change and promoting a culture of safe and nutritious food.
- The ‘Eat Right School’ program targets school children and the broader community. Given that dietary habits are formed early in life, it emphasizes the importance of including food and nutrition in school curricula and extracurricular activities.
- The implementation of the ‘Eat Right School’ program encourages active participation from schools. It provides schools with access to an online registration portal, where they can register, create Health & Wellness teams, and access a range of activities and resources related to the Eat Right program.
- School teachers and parents can become Health and Wellness Ambassadors (HWA) or form Health and Wellness teams. These individuals can earn certification from FSSAI through an online program, enabling them to drive various food safety and nutrition initiatives.
- FSSAI offers a curriculum that can be integrated into school programs, featuring content developed by experts in the field. The Eat Right School initiative’s target audience includes students, teachers, health and wellness advocates, kitchen staff, and supporting personnel.
- The initiative’s objectives encompass FSSAI licensing, HWA certification, hygiene audits, assessments related to water and food safety, pest control sensitization, personal hygiene awareness and kits, training programs, the distribution of Eat Right resource materials, and the implementation of best practices.
S1: Registration of Schools on FSSAI (ERS Portal).
S2: Identification & Training of Health & Wellness Ambassadors, followed by certification.
S3: Conduct Eat Right Activities, workshops, trainings, etc.
S4: Eat Right School Certification.
S5: Monitoring and Evaluation through Eat Right Matrix.
S6: Upload the respective photos and documents on ERS Portal.
Inspired by the focus on preventive and promotive healthcare in the National Health Policy 2017 and flagship programmes like Ayushman Bharat, POSHAN Abhiyaan and Swacch Bharat Mission, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has embarked on a large-scale effort to transform the country’s food system in order to ensure safe, healthy and sustainable food for all Indians through the ‘Eat Right India’ movement.
FSSAI has taken up a series of initiatives to transform India’s food safety and nutrition landscape by ensuring availability and consumption of safe food and healthy diets by its citizens. Eat Right School programme aims at creating awareness about food safety, nutrition & hygiene among school children, and through them among the community at large. Children are powerful change agents. Messages delivered to, and through children, have the potential to usher in behavioural change and a culture of safe and wholesome food. Since, food habits are developed early in life, adequate coverage of food and nutrition both in curriculum and extracurricular activities at the school level is essential.
In order to spread the awareness, it is imperative that schools participate actively in the Eat Right School initiative.
A user friendly and comprehensive online portal has been created for school registration, creation of Health & Wellness teams, and access to many activities under Eat Right program. Schools register on the online portal created for ease of adoption, implementation and gain access to credible information.
School teachers and/or parents can be nominated as Health and Wellness Ambassadors /Health and Wellness teams. They would be certified by FSSAI by undertaking an online certification program and drive various safe food and nutrition initiatives.
Curriculum integration – FSSAI has created a rich repository of content created by domain experts that may be absorbed and adopted for school curriculum for students as well as for Teacher Training Programme.
The target audience for the Eat Right School (ERS) initiative includes students, teachers, health and wellness advocates (teachers and parents), kitchen teams, and supporting staff.
The deliverables for the Eat Right School (ERS) initiative encompass FSSAI licensing, HWA certification, hygiene audits (including water and food testing), WASH assessments, pest control sensitization, personal hygiene awareness and kits, training programs, distribution of Eat Right resource materials, and the implementation of best practices.
PROCESS OF EAT RIGHT SCHOOL CERTIFICATION
- S1: Registration of Schools on FSSAI (ERS Portal).
- S2: Identification & Training of Health & Wellness Ambassadors, followed by certification.
- S3: Conduct Eat Right Activities, workshops, trainings, etc.
- S4: Eat Right School Certification.
- S5: Monitoring and Evaluation through Eat Right Matrix.
- S6: Upload the respective photos and documents on ERS Portal.