The FSSAI recognises the significance of street food culture in the country and so will organise the ‘National Eat Right Mela’ in partnership with the 11th National Street Food Festival by National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) from 26th to 29th December from 12 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi. This will be the second edition of the ‘National Eat Right Mela’ so far.
This Mela will be inaugurated by the Hon’ble Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Dr Harsh Vardhan on 26th December around 11:30 am. He will also address representatives from the various states at the workshop being organized for them. The representatives will be made conversant with the ‘Eat Right India’ movement and which will help them to scale it up at the state level.
The Hon’ble Minister will also launch the “Network for Scientific Co-operation for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition” (NetSCoFAN), a network of research and academic institutions working in the area of food and nutrition. This network would comprise of eight groups of institutions that are working in different areas as under;
(1) Biological Group (BIG)
(2) Chemical Group (CHG)
(3) Nutrition and Claims Group (NLG)
(4) Foods of Animal Origin Group (FAG)
(5) Food of Plant Origin Group (FPG)
(6) Water and Beverages Group (WBG)
(7) Food Testing Group (FTG)
(8) Safer and Sustainable Packaging Group (SPG).
Each group will be led by a lead institution and selected partner institution(s) and would be responsible for carrying out the activities i.e., conduct horizon-scanning of information/data on existing and emerging food safety risks and issues in the respective areas, conduct surveys, research work and other related activities, sharing testing facilities and instrumentations, testing protocols and so on.
‘The PURPLE Book’ which is a handbook on diets for diseases will also be launched at the function. The book provides general guidelines for hospitals so as to provide suitable diets for common medical conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, cancer, gut disorders and so on in a simple format. The book has been developed and vetted by experts in the field of food and nutrition and will be available for free download on www.fssai.gov.in.
This five-day Mela will provide a complete food experience to consumers. It is an opportunity to learn everything one needs to know about safe food and healthy diets, relish delicious street food, watch live cooking demonstrations by renowned chefs, participate in food quizzes with nutritionists and enjoy cultural performances and street theatre. During the Mela citizens will have the opportunity to engage in dialogue and conversations with food visionaries and experts such as celebrity Chefs Ranveer Brar and Sanjeev Kapoor, well-known journalist and food critics like Vir Sanghvi, Dr. Shikha Sharma, Dr. Ishi Khosla and many other influential food personalities.
While conversing with the media about this Mela, CEO, FSSAI Pawan Agarwal stated that the Mela is an amalgamation of a unique collaboration that has brought together various stakeholders from the food industry, food experts and the common people who will be there just to relish the food. He stated that “Through this Mela, we want to give a unique and distinct identify to our local and street foods, but at the same time, we are also wish to offer a platform to the packaged food industry to showcase innovation in terms of newer areas like reformulation of food products, healthier food variants as well as sustainable and enhanced packaging solutions”.
The distinctive factor and the focus of the Mela this year will be on the theme of ‘Healthier Diets’. The FSSAI has taken the initiative to also organise several games and quizzes so as to engage citizens and make it easier for them to relate more actively with healthier diets. The ‘Eat Healthy’ pavilion will have the concept of reducing the consumption of High Fat, Salt and Sugar foods, eliminating trans-fats, increasing the consumption of fortified staples and choosing local and seasonal produce. One example of a game is based on ‘healthy food challenge’ where citizens can rank packaged foods from most to least healthy as per their own understanding. Their results will be matched as per the set benchmarks through an analysis made available by a company who is engaged in the model of reading nutrient constitution of various packaged food products through label reading.
Other interesting pavilion to be showcased during the mela is ‘Food Safety’ pavilion, which will primarily focus on FSAN (Food Safety and Applied Nutrition). On this platform there will be demonstrations of rapid food testing kits/ devices with participation from various government institutions/laboratories categorized into themes i.e., milk and milk products, salt and oils, meat and fish products and cereals, pulses, fruits, vegetables and beverages.
Ms. Sangeeta Singh, Head of Programs, NASVI expressed her happiness that this Street Food Festival would help thousands of vendors, as they would get due recognition. So far, such festivals have helped mainstream street vending communities get their due and example of which is a vendor, called Dalchand, a famous chaat wala who has been featured recently on Netflix across the country.
Shri Arbind Singh, National Coordinator, NASVI highlighted that this carnival will be an advocacy event with a difference. At this Mela, over 100 street vendors would get the opportunity to showcase their regional cuisines to thousands of visitors from various walks of life, which could help to boost their businesses. At the same time, visitors, while enjoying street food, would be able to learn about healthy eating practices from experts across the country.
Ms. Inoshi Sharma, Director Social and Behaviour Change Division (SBCD), FSSAI mentioned that the Eat Right Mela is an effort to mainstream the key messages of the ‘Eat Right India Movement’’ – safe, healthy and sustainable diets in the lives of common people by leveraging the established and popular National Street Food Festival.
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