Question : Food and Nutrition Board

(a) whether the Government has set up the Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) to implement community nutrition programmes;
(b) if so, the details thereof alongwith its structure, functions and budget;
(c) whether the FNB organises various activities and programmes for women and children, if so, the details thereof and funds sanctioned therefor during the last three years;
(d) whether the Government has set up Food Testing Laboratories to analyse the food items under Anganwadi scheme, if so, the details of laboratories, State-wise and the achievement made by them so far; and
(e) whether the Government has reviewed the functioning of the FNB and if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?

ANSWER

MINISTER OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
(SHRIMATI SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI)

(a) to (c) Food and Nutrition Board is the technical wing of the Ministry with head office in Delhi and four Regional Offices alongwith four Quality Control Laboratories located at Faridabad, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. It has 43 Community Food and Nutrition Extension Units (CFNEUs) located in 30 States/UTs. FNB Headquarter, through its four Regional Offices, provides the technical as well as administrative support for the functioning of CFNEUs which conducts nutrition extension programmes.

Activities of FNB include organizing of Training of the Trainers for government functionaries, orientation training programmes for grassroot level functionaries, training in home scale preservation of fruits & vegetables, monitoring of Supplementary Nutrition and Nutrition & Health component of the Anganwadi Services Scheme, development and promotion of low cost nutritious recipes using locally available Foods etc
.
The fund sanctioned to FNB during last three years are as indicated hereunder:

Year Funds Allocated
(Rs. In crore)
2017-18 52.85
2018-19 53.45
2019-20 6.96
2020-21 6.76

(d) One Central Food Testing Laboratory at Faridabad and 3 Regional Food Testing Laboratories at Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai have been set up to test physical, chemical and microbiological parameters of food.

(e) The functioning of FNB has been reviewed and based thereupon efforts have been made to integrate its functioning with Food Safety and Standards Authority of India.

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