Daijiworld Media Network - Srinagar
Srinagar, Aug 28: The Jammu and Kashmir Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has directed that junk food should not be sold within 50 metres of school gates across the Union Territory.
Officials said the FDA has asked the School Education Department to strictly implement food safety regulations in all government and private schools, including a ban on the sale of junk food within school premises and within 50 metres of school gates.
In a communication to the Directors of School Education, the FDA said the Food Safety and Standards (Safe Food and Balanced Diets for Children in School) Regulations, 2020, must be effectively implemented to ensure safe, hygienic and nutritionally balanced food for schoolchildren.
Under the regulations, schools must ensure that food products high in saturated fat, trans-fat, added sugar or sodium are not sold or offered on school premises.
The restrictions also apply to an area extending 50 metres in every direction from the school gate, where the sale, marketing or advertising of such food products to schoolchildren is prohibited.
The FDA has further directed that school authorities and food business operators providing food services on school campuses must be registered or licensed under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, and comply with prescribed sanitary and hygienic requirements.
Such food facilities are also required to maintain Food Safety Display Boards and appoint Food Safety Supervisors, wherever applicable.
The regulations require schools to designate meal times to promote healthy eating habits among children and provide safe drinking water free of cost to all students.
School authorities, including principals and headmasters, as well as bodies responsible for managing the institutions, have been tasked with conducting regular inspections of food premises and monitoring the quality, safety and hygiene of food served to students.
The FDA has also said schools may appoint a Health and Wellness Ambassador or constitute a Health and Wellness Team to serve as a nodal mechanism for monitoring the availability of safe, balanced and hygienic food.
The FDA has called upon the School Education Department and school authorities to ensure strict compliance with the regulations across Jammu and Kashmir.