News: The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has launched a campaign to promote Eat Right India Movement
Facts:
About Eat Right India Movement
- The Eat Right India Movement was launched by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) in 2018. It is a preventive healthcare measure to trigger social and behavioural change among people.
- Aim: The movement aims to improve public health in India and combat negative nutritional trends to fight lifestyle diseases.
- Need for the Movement: India’s disease burden is shifting from communicable to non-communicable diseases and the burden of diet-related diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and obesity is on a rise. Thus, it has become necessary to sensitise people about healthy eating.
Salient Features:
- It is built on two broad pillars of ‘Eat Healthy’ and ‘Eat Safe’.
- It collaborates with both the demand side and supply side.
- On the demand side, it focuses on empowering citizens to make the right food choices.
- On the supply side, it nudges food businesses to reformulate their products, provide better nutritional information to consumers and make investments in healthy food
- It brings together three ongoing initiatives of FSSAI:
- Safe and Nutritious Food Initiative which focusses on social and behavioural change around food safety and nutrition at home, school, workplace and on-the-go
- The Eat Healthy Campaign which focusses on reduction of high fat, sugar and salt foods in the diet
- Food Fortification which focuses on promoting five staple foods-wheat flour, rice, oil, milk and salt that are added with key vitamins and minerals to improve their nutritional content.
- The movement is aligned with the government’s flagship public health programmes such as POSHAN Abhiyaan, Anemia Mukt Bharat, Ayushman Bharat Yojana and Swachh Bharat Mission.
Additional Information:
Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI):
- Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is a statutory, autonomous body established under the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare
- FSSAI is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the regulation and supervision of food safety
