A total of only 250 institutions in Keralam have received the ‘Eat Right Campus’ certification so far.

An initiative of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the ‘Eat Right Campus’ project aims at ensuring safe, healthy and sustainable food on the campuses and reducing the incidence of food-borne illnesses, deficiency diseases and non-communicable diseases among the people on the campus.

Besides colleges and universities, workplaces (private organisations, government organisations, public sector undertakings), non-government organisations, hospitals, anganwadi centres and jails are among the institutions that can apply for the certification.

As per the official estimates, there are 27 institutions in Kannur district having the certification as of mid-September. Kollam and Thrissur districts have 25 each institutions that had received the certification. The number of institutions having the ‘Eat Right Campus’ certification in other districts are as follows: Thiruvananthapuram (17), Pathanamthitta (12), Alappuzha (20), Kottayam (18), Ernakulam (19), Idukki (16), Palakkad (19), Malappuram (23), Kozhikode (14), Wayanad (8), Kannur (27), Kasaragod (7).

Evaluation

Senior officials of the Department of Food Safety said that the institutions are evaluated under four different parameters that include food safety measures, steps to ensure provision of healthy food, environmentally sustainable food practices and building awareness among the individuals in the campus to make the right food choices.

The best practices expected from the institutions include mandatory steps such as licencing and registration of food service establishments in the campus and compliance to food safety and hygiene standards as per Schedule 4 of the Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Act, 2006, they said. A campus is certified as an ‘Eat Right Campus’, if it scored three or more stars on a five-star rating scale. The certification is valid for two years, they said.

Earlier, the validity of the certificates of 204 institutions in the State had expired, they said.

On why the initiative has not gathered pace as expected, the officials pointed out that some of the institutions seemed reluctant to apply while citing procedural delays. The certification is done in a phased manner as per the directions issued by the FSSAI. Moreover, the process can be completed in tune with the release of funds from the FSSAI to meet the cost incurred for the Food Safety Training and Certification (FoSTaC) programme and fee for third-party auditing by an agency empanelled by the authority, they said.

Food safety officials in Ernakulam pointed out that ‘Eat Right Campus’ certification is among the various such rating initiatives carried out by them, including regular enforcement activities. With a limited staff strength, the certification process required time. Only a few institutions come forward on its own to undergo the evaluation process, they said.