FSSAI wants to teach children about healthy foods in textbooks

Growing concern over malnutrition and bad eating habits among children in the country has prompted India’s food regulator to recommend to the National Council of Educational Research (NCERT), to incorporate topics such as safe, healthy and nutritious food in their textbooks, said a  report in a business daily.

After reviewing NCERT textbooks of class 1-12 of all subjects, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) felt there was a need to modify the existing content in the curriculum related to food safety. FSSAI chief executive officer Arun Singhal told The Mint that they want children in every class to get the appropriate information on healthy food and safety because children have the ability to transform society. Moreover, FSSAI felt that bad dietary habits and under nourished children could impact the social and economic progress of India.

And, hence, they reached out to the NCERT and recommended to add more information about healthy food eating habits in their textbooks.

In India, children lack adequate nutrition, and they suffer from micro nutrient deficiencies, while in urban areas, children are at a higher risk of childhood obesity.

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A World Obesity Federation report anticipated that India will have 27 million children with obesity by 2030, which works out to 1 in 10 of all children globally. On the one hand, India is grappling with combating under-nutrition among children in rural areas, and on the other hand, they are having to deal with childhood obesity in cities.

Meanwhile, the NCERT admitted to having received FSSAI’s recommendation and said that they would keep FSSAI’s advice in mind in their new books. The news report said the FSSAI wrote to NCERT in which they said that there is scope to incorporate information related to food safety, nutrition and healthy diets into the curriculum.

The FSSAI, believed that childhood dietary behaviours are vital because food preferences are largely formed during the school years and advocated age-appropriate interventions.

The FSSAI said they had also suggested topics to NCERT which could be included in every class. Moreover, since the NCERT books are currently in the process of being revised for all classes, this would be a good opportunity to integrate these topics, said the report. The FSSAI also requested NCERT to nominate a nodal person with whom they could work with.