Food regulator FSSAI certifies nearly 100 jails as 'Eat Right Campus'

New Delhi: Food regulator FSSAI has certified nearly 100 jails across the country as 'Eat Right Campus' as part of its efforts to ensure access to safe and nutritious food for inmates and prison staff.

"Nearly 100 jails across the country have been certified as 'Eat Right Campus' by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), marking a significant milestone in its goal of promoting safe and healthy eating habits within different campuses," an official statement said on Thursday.

The 'Eat Right Campus' certification process involves rigorous assessment and adherence to FSSAI's prescribed evaluation criteria.

By meeting these standards, the certified jails have demonstrated their dedication to promoting the food safety and well-being of inmates, it said.

The initiative saw participation and certification of some prominent jails of India, including the Tihar Prison (Delhi), Central Jail Gaya (Bihar), Modern Central Jail (Punjab), Central Jail Rewa (Madhya Pradesh) and others, along with several district and Mandal jails.

The highest number of certified jails were from Uttar Pradesh, followed by Punjab, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh.

This initiative falls under FSSAI’s Eat Right India movement and aims to promote safe, healthy, and sustainable food in different workplaces and institutions, including jails.

"By extending the Eat Right Campus certification to prisons and correctional facilities, FSSAI underscores its commitment to ensuring access to safe and nutritious food for all, including inmates and prison staff," it said.

The participant jail campuses undergo comprehensive audits to ensure compliance with four key parameters, which include basic hygiene criteria, steps to ensure the provision of healthy food, and efforts towards building awareness about local and seasonal food.

Once enrolled in this programme, a campus first undergoes a self-assessment or a third-party audit by an FSSAI-empanelled agency based on this checklist to identify gaps and areas of improvement.

The campus administration then takes steps to address these gaps. A critical step of this process includes training of food safety supervisors and food handlers on the campus through FSSAI's Food Safety Training and Certification (FoSTaC) Programme.

FoSTaC is designed to impart training to food handlers on good hygiene and manufacturing practices.

Once these improvements are made, the campus undergoes a final audit by the same FSSAI-empaneled agency and is given a certification for Eat Right Campus.

Over 2,900 workplaces throughout the country have now been acknowledged as Eat Right Campuses.