Question : Obesity among Children

Will the Minister of HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE be pleased to state:

(a) whether the Government is taking any measures to put in place an effective public health policy to tackle obesity and under weight among children and if so, the details thereof;

(b) whether violations of regulations of food industry by some food companies, soft drink companies and agrochemical manufacturers have come to the notice of the Government;

(c) if so, the details of such incidents reported during the last three years in the country, year-wise; and

(d) whether the Government has taken any stringent actions against the agencies which violated the rules and if so, the details thereof?

ANSWER
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND
FAMILY WELFARE
(SMT. ANUPRIYA PATEL)
(a): Government has recently approved National Nutrition Mission (NNM) under Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD) with the objective to implement various activities to comprehensively tackle underweight among children in the country. The salient points on NNM includes Information Technology based real time monitoring of underweight children, ID/name based tracking of severely underweight children and integration of nutritional status monitoring with health monitoring system.

To address the issue of High Fat, Sugar and Salt (HFSS) in food and associated health risks, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) constituted an Expert Group. The Report of the Expert Group, with its gist, has been uploaded on FSSAI website:- http://www.fssai.gov.in/home/food-standards/Advisories---Orders.html

Further, to help consumers make an informed choice, FSSAI has decided to revise its labelling regulations to include mandatory declaration of total fat, added sugar, salt, trans fat and energy per serving along with its contribution to Recommended Dietary Allowance(RDA) on front of pack label.


(b) to (d): Responsibility for enforcement of provisions of Food Safety and Standards Act,2006 and Rules and Regulations made thereunder which, inter-alia, include standards for food products, additives, microbiological standards, packaging and labelling norms etc. are primarily rests with the Food Safety Departments of the State/Union Territory Governments.

Regular surveillance, monitoring, inspection and random sampling of food products, are undertaken by the officials of Food Safety Departments of the respective States/ UTs to check that they comply with the standards laid down under Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, and the rules and regulations made thereunder. In cases where the food samples are found to be non-conforming, recourse is taken to penal provisions under Chapter IX of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.

Details of the samples collected, found non-conforming and action taken during the last three years are given in Annexures I,II and III .